Using Social Media in Business

Social Media Strategy Memo

Internal Memo on the Value of Social Media

VP, Marketing

Using Social Media to Listen and Connect With Customers

The many social media sites that are proliferating today are opening up new opportunities for our company to attract, sell and serve our existing customers and find new ones. The following memo provides a brief overview of the social media options available to our company to connect with customers, the advantages and disadvantages of each type of social media, and a recommendation of how we can use these new forms of communication to build strong relationships with customers and prospects.

Comparing The Advantages and Disadvantages Of How Social Media That Can Help Connect With Customers

Of the many social media sites and applications available today, there are three that are best used for connecting with customers. These include LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn is a social networking site that is very career-focused with each person having a profile that resembles a resume. Some employers are using LinkedIn as a resume instead of the more formal document as a means to screen potential employees. LinkedIn is an ideal social networking site to use for prospecting for new customers as well.

There are social networks entirely committed to image-based content including Pinterest and to a large extent Google+, while others are more focused on social interaction, including Facebook. Of the many types of social networks, LinkedIn and Twitter are the most effective for our company to use in connecting with customers.

Comparing LinkedIn And Twitter

The advantages of using LinkedIn as a social media site for finding new prospects and listening to customers include the ability to quickly form new groups, manage those groups, and actively ask questions and share information with them. In short, our company could use LinkedIn to create smaller customer communities or audiences that we could speak with online anytime. As long as we provide excellent content to them and help them solve their problems, we'll continue to see activity in our community. The disadvantages of using LinkedIn include its time-consuming nature; to use this social network well, it will take a few hours every day. The second disadvantage is the need to continually provide useful content for prospects and customers. This will also require time producing new white papers, e-books and useful blog posts. Third, there is no control over what customers say there, so our company will have to monitor the discussions closely.

Twitter is the second social network that is best suited for connecting with and listening to customers. The advantages of Twitter include creating short messages to prospects and customers, using Twitter to talk with customers who need customer service to help them solve a specific problem, and the opportunity to promote specific events our company is hosting. Twitter is also free to use. The disadvantages of using Twitter include how high maintenance it can become, the need to always provide useful content, and how it must be monitored if the Twitter account is used for customer service. Twitter is a very open social network so customer comments, either good or bad, need to be closely monitored and responded to, which can take a significant amount of time.