5 Questions Businesses Are Too Scared To Ask About Social Media Marketing
The funny things people say…
To mark the six month anniversary of the Manchester Social Media Surgery, I’ve compiled 5 great questions asked by attendees that highlight objections businesses have to using social media like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for marketing.
Social Media Surgery events are free monthly events that help Manchester businesses embrace the social media revolution in order to grow and market their companies.
Each Manchester Social Media Surgery offers real life advice and case studies from an experienced panel of digital and social media marketers who discuss social media projects and issues presented by the audience.
The first, organised rather hastily by myself in November 2009, took place the next month at Manchester Metropolitan University’s business incubator, Innospace.
Despite the almost non-existent promotion, companies that attended included Prospects, the official graduate careers service, highlighting the value businesses saw in attending.
Since that first event, the events have blossomed with attendees ranging from managers at IT and web development firms, letting agencies(!) and Greater Manchester weekly business paper, Crains Manchester Business, as reported last month.
Here come 5 great questions put to our Social Media Surgeons at recent events:
1. “I’d rather be outside than being sat at my computer all day doing social media. What are other people like about this?”
A fantastic question posed by an attendee from non profit Actors Centre at the May Manchester Social Media Surgery event.
It highlights the concern that the real expense with social media marketing, time, outweighs the benefits.
Thankfully the esteemed panel of Surgeons at the event put paid to this:
Matt Hackett, (@mattorchard on Twitter) Manager, Digital & Marketing Recruitment Team at Orchard answered:
“Twitter is actually a really good tool for marketing to people’s pockets, a lot of people use mobile phones to access Twitter.”
Nigel Barlow, (@nigelbarlow on Twitter) Freelance journalist and co-founder of hyper-local news site for Manchester, Inside the M60 continued:
“Compared to how things were when I started in business, we are actually living in constant information overload. Twitter and Facebook are tools that allow you to control all that information.”
Katie Moffat, (@katiemoffat on Twitter) Social media consultant, organiser of Manchester Twestival and Manchester Digital council member and trainer for e-consultancy went on to explain:
“…it’s your choice of who you accept connections from on Twitter or Facebook. Making connections with people in business is human, we are social beings. Social media makes it easier to make those connections with real people that live in different geographical locations around the world.”
2.”How do you make people view something? Why does one video get more views than another?”
Another question from the May Manchester Social Media Surgery.
Katie Moffat answered:
“The reason why people would view a video or follow a person is about ‘added value’. This can mean a myriad of things, being funny, sharing information etc.”
Sarah Hartley, (@foodiesarah on Twitter) Local launch editor for The Guardian and esteemed food blogger added that:
“Political blogs were given a legitimacy during the recent elections with lots of political bloggers being invited as pundits on TV shows”.
Matt Hackett concludes:
“social media allows you to have a live and constant update about what you do and what you have done. It’s an update on the one-off ‘user testimonial’.”
3. “Any suggestions on the best way to manage our social media activity? I have succeeded in connecting our facebook page with Twitter, how would I then link this in with our website?”
This question was asked at the April Manchester Social Media Surgery.
The answer was that it depends on the underlying technology powering the website.
As I answered then:
“If your website is using the hosted version of a blogging platform like WordPress you can set it up to send a tweet to Twitter and post an update to your Facebook page every time you write a blog post.”
4. What is the difference between a Facebook Group and Facebook Page?
Answered by Bruce Thomas of social media agency, Modern English at the March Manchester Social Media Surgery:
Facebook Groups are best for lobbying – Pros: can mass mail people. Cons: Cannot view groups outside Facebook.
Fan Pages are best for companies/entities – Pros: viewable outside Facebook. Cons: Cannot mass mail ‘fans’.
5. How do you use social media to extend the reach of the organisation?
Asked at the February Manchester Social Media Surgery by a representative from Chetham’s School of Music.
Answered by Adrian Slatcher, (@adrianslatcher on Twitter) Senior Digital Development officer, Manchester Digital Development Agency, MDDA:
“Chethams should be considering using social media to connect groups, alumni, friends and supporters going forward.
Look at creating the content now and plan for a long term process of using social media tools for outreach. Facebook a potentially very helpful tool for Chethams, for example.”
Dave Mee (@davemee on Twitter), director of digital interactive solutions company, Tandot and co-founder of community hackspace, Manchester Digital Laboratory added:
“It’s also about trying to guide and connect people from the various different networks who associate with Chethams. It would be interesting to see how people move on from the Facebook page to the Flickr or YouTube page, for instance.”
And that’s it!
What would you like to see more of at the Social Media Surgery? Please take a minute to fill our short online survey. Thanks!
The next Manchester Social Media Surgery is on Tuesday 8th June from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the offices of the Manchester Digital Development Agency, MDDA, Lower Ground Floor, 117-119 Portland Street, Manchester M1 6ED.
Here’s a 12 second video from the May Manchester Social Media Surgery.
Related posts:
- Record Turnout for Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses
- Your Burning Questions Wanted: Using Twitter for Marketing
- Real Fresh TV’s Monthly Social Media Events Guide – June
- Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses in November
- Free Social Media Surgery for Manchester Businesses in October
