Do you need Facebook or Twitter? pt.1

Writing a blog about Social Media for business is actually a fairly easy exercise – and I’m not trying to be flippant about it.

People want to know the basics such as; do I need Facebook or Twitter? How do I get more followers? And so on, but while these are good questions they only really scratch the surface of something that’s ultimately much larger and sophisticated than it appears.

The irony perhaps is that while businesses sweat blood and tears trying to build Facebook and Twitter followers, they do not always spend the time trying to understand the way in which the social media landscape actually works – effectively creating a bit of a ‘catch 22’ situation when it comes to finding and keeping followers active on their behalf.

The theory is – the more followers you have the better you’re doing but if they’re not buying in to you or what you’re “selling” they’re actually valueless. So in this article, rather than offering up another cute blog on the latest Facebook profile changes – which you can find all over the Internet at the moment, I thought we’d spend some time highlighting how you can identify what’s really going on socially.




If you gain more understanding of your potential followers in the digital world, you will be more able to develop a better strategy for your business and social presence moving forward – something that should help you avoid social accounts with tumble weed rolling through them.

You Tube is King

If you think social media is all about Facebook and Twitter then think again! Aside from being the third most popular search engine globally, You Tube can define the social media landscape more easily than any other social platform.

Put in simple terms, You Tube allows you to see what digital savvy people are interested in online because popularity of videos is dictated by end-users themselves. This popularity counts for ‘in the moment’ videos as well as ‘long shelf life’ video content that can build communities of fans.

With Facebook and Twitter, there is a lot of information being broadcast and it can actually be very difficult to distinguish the good from the bad or indeed what is relevant to you and therefore can be harder to develop successful strategies for.

It’s obviously not quite as simple as posting a video up and waiting for the millions of hits to accrue though and you can manipulate the space once you understand it, but for now, we’re going to use it to get some insight in to online users and how they interact with content

So what now?

Over the past year especially, there have been attempts to define social media as a ‘marketing tool’, a ‘PR tool’, an ‘SEO’ tool etc. and while it is actually a combination of all of these things – with some band wagon jumping in between – all of these approaches tend to be about taking a product or brand to Internet users at large and expecting some miraculous result.

This is by far the biggest mistake you can make with social media. And why?

Because online users are more difficult to define in terms of traditional demographics found in marketing or PR.

Social relies on Internet users finding you. While you can use techniques to get them to your Twitter and Facebook pages, the real trick is keeping them there and ensuring they are interacting with you. This is why you need to have a solid strategy based on the digital environment.

You have to motivate your followers to work FOR YOU. They will share your content and they will interact but only if you put in the groundwork and go the extra mile.

Posted by Idealogy