The company behind the strategic social media conference I attended on Wednesday (April 14) had an apt name - Don't Panic.
Because it seems some brands and marketing professionals across the UK are panicking and diving head first into social media online, without thinking it through first, strategically.
Like lemmings into the sea some companies are jumping onto the Twitter bandwagon because they think they should be - and not taking the time to sit back and think about why they're doing it.
The conference, held at London's Commonwealth Club, had an overriding theme of focusing on the problems that needed solving, rather than being blinkered by the tools.
Robin Wilson, of McCann Erickson, gave some pertinent case studies and showed how his company used different social media sites to help different clients market themselves to different audiences in different ways.
And refreshingly, Merlin Sinclair of Westminster City Council, admitted that his organisation didn't use Twitter for its campaigns as after some careful research they discovered that only two per cent of residents were on the micro-blogging site.
As well as stressing the importance of research and planning, the speakers talked about the important role social media has to play in crisis management for PR.
If used effectively, social media can be your 'canary in the mine' and an early warning sign for potentially damaging PR about to arise. For example, if you keep a close eye on Twitter you can spot an unhappy customer posting about a bad experience of your product / service. (After all, "If there's an issue, someone, somewhere, will be tweeting about it" - Rob Brown, Staniforth)
The trick is to be open and deal with the problem head on - and publicly - by engaging with them and offering a solution.
Stuart Bruce, of Wolfstar, urged delegates not to be afraid of negative comments and cited Nestle as an example of how deleting posts can have catastrophic effects for your brand.
Martin Thomas, author of Crowd Surfing, and Ann Longley, of Mediaedge:cia, also gave fantastic insights into social media, the internet and social change.
Considering that the UK e-Commerce market will be worth £48b this year, with online sales now representing 10 per cent of total UK retail sales, it is clear that businesses need to be seriously engaging online in order to gain an edge on their competitors.
Here are some of my top tips from the conference:
1. RESEARCH your audience to find out what social media they are using. Sculpt your campaign around the results and never jump in before checking you're not shouting your message into an empty room. 2. ENSURE your branding is consistent online and offline. You can do this by setting up Twitter backgrounds with your company logo and ensuring your tone of voice is consistent. 3. KEEP on top of your social media channels. Setting up blogs and web pages but not updating them gives a negative impression. If you need to, set up a calendar of what content you will upload where, and when. A crafty tool called Hootsuite also allows you to time your Twitter updates for the whole week. 4. MEASURE your online presence and keep track of your campaign effectiveness. You can find a number of free tools to do this, such as Technorati, Ice Rocket and Howsociable. REMEMBER social media is a way of speaking to influencers and stakeholders as well as current and potential customers. I use Twitter as an effective way of keeping in touch with journalists and the hashtag #journorequest keeps me updated with great opportunities to get our clients into the press.
If you want to find out more about social media and how it can help your brand contact us by calling 023 80 238001 or by emailing ed@carswellgould.co.uk.
Additional Reading Marshall Manson, director of digital at PR agency Edelman, says brands must control their fear of social media
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