Where does social media fit?
So, as 2009 dawns (I promise that’s the last time I write that, honest) and we look to a rather lean year ahead, I’m posing a contentious question;
Where does social media actually fit in a business?
In the last few months at Wolfstar I’ve been lucky enough to meet some fantastic clients, and something that crops up on a fairly regular basis is the phrase ‘do you mind if we bring **** in’. Now **** might work in the communications department, but they could be an advertising bod, work in PR, internal comms, customer service, digital, SEO… The list is endless.
So why are these people bought in? Well it’s simple. Social media is still growing and is certainly unchartered waters for many companies – and many companies are stil cautious to dip their toe in the water. In fact, only 10% of UK businesses currently use social media as a tool for communicating (I’ve lost the bloody link for this). So when a firm is a little bit cautious, it’s important for them to bring in slightly more savvy staff (obviously digital or SEO staff are going to be a little more online-savvy) to reassure themselves.
Once these people have sat in on a meeting, it’s quite regular for them to be involved in the next steps – which then creates a situation; if a firm brings in multiple departments for a single tool, who stumps up the budget?
Let’s get one thing straight before we carry on; social media is a tool and not another part of marketing communications (although Andy Dickinson would argue that social media is a behaviour).
So, where does this tool work best? I asked the question in my twitter stream and I got an immediate response. Dominic Whitehurst suggested tailoring social media to each strand of marketing, while Andy and Nick Booth both believe that social media needs to be firmly set at strategic level – which comes with obvious ‘chicken and the egg’ problems. In a rather animalistic way (and tying in with the ‘unchartered waters’ cliché!) Luc Pestille suggests building trust with the client until you find a way to infiltrate the appropriate area of business.
I’m a massive advocate of social media being involved at the highest levels, it’s absolutely necessary for social media to have maximum impact.
Where do you think social media fits? And how should we move forwards and encourage clients to involve social media at a strategic level?