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Guest Column: Social media demand business response

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Everyone is trying to define social media. Put it this way: It's about joining the conversation.

Now, just as in any cocktail party setting, you have your outgoing huggers and your introverted wallflowers. But this is not a classic movie, where the guy reaches out to draw in the pretty girl. This is business circa the great recession, and if you don't become part of the conversation, you don't get a voice.

It's that simple - and that complicated, because most businesses aren't that good at communication.

Oh, sure, they know how to buy ads (or their agency does). They may even handle their public relations and crisis communications just fine. They know direct sales, and have a Web site (which, of course, could use some updating).

Recognize the common factor there? They are all "push-out" means of communication. In other words, it's a monologue.

Change required

Today, a monologue doesn't cut it. Customers have made themselves part of the conversation whether business likes it or not.

So how do companies begin to sit down and talk?

Step 1: Understand your strategy for social media.

An early step is setting up a presence on selected sites that are pertinent to your business. This media presence may be supported by traditional marketing such as display ad buys, but the point is to build a profile of your company as it goes out into the world to talk. Like a conversation, this planning is ongoing and not something you can finish and set on a shelf.

Step 2: Ensure you have someone who can actively engage and start discussions.

Part of your strategy should be to identify how often you will update, what you will respond to, and a calendar that identifies your discussion topics or "soul." Being part of a conversation means expressing your personality. Be sure you know what that personality is for your business. Feeding the beast is critical, so be sure you have the mechanisms in place to provide new inspiration and information.

Step 3: Ensure you have someone who can monitor other conversations.

This is sometimes called reputation management, or chatter management. It involves monitoring social media sites to at least know what is being said in order to protect your brand or field and develop a proactive strategy. In this step, even the sites not directly tied to your business may need to be watched. The methodology includes using information aggregators such as Google alerts, Twitter searches and Neemee.com.

You need to understand your earned media, and know that it changes quickly.

Find the conversation

Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are powerful marketing tools that allow you to converse. But no company should be saying, "We need to get on Twitter." What they should be saying is, "Where is the community where our target market is talking?"

The term social media has become the accepted moniker (for now) to explain the way the online conversation works. What is happening, though, is that companies are slotting it into their media mix just as though it were another slice of their communications pie.

Squash that approach. Social media is not another piece of the pie. It actually encompasses the whole pie and makes it bigger.

Social media makes your display advertising work harder, because it can get your ads talked about. Social media enhances your PR, because it can take your news releases and events farther. Social media takes your Web site to new places and links it where you never would have dreamed.

Sure, some of those places may not be exactly comfortable. But it's no longer about control. Now, it's about good management.

Good management walks around and checks the pulse of the employees and the customers. Good management joins in the conversation where appropriate. Good management starts new conversational topics and can have some success in directing perceptions.

I heard a politician once say that public image directs public perception, and public perception creates public policy. In the case of social media, public image is created by conversation, public perception is enhanced by good conversation, and the result of better perception is increased sales. It's funny how that works.

All businesses need to understand that someday someone is going to point a camera at them when there's a mistake or something spectacular happens. And it will be talked about. Don't you want to already be in the conversation so you can at least say, "I'm sorry," or "Hey, thanks"?

Just start talking. Trust me, someone is ready to talk back.[[In-content Ad]]Kay Logsdon is director of The Food Channel for Noble Communications. She can be contacted at editor@foodchannel.com.

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