Why does social media matter?
According to the Office of National Statistics, At least 90% of UK has access to broadband, digital radio or a 3G mobile network, meaning they have access to the internet and to eacj other.
Social networks accounted for 10% of all UK internet traffic at the beginning of 2009.
According to a study by Advocacy Online, 93% of organisations currently have a social media presence.
How can your organisation use social media?
Remember that social media is a two-way conversation, not the passive, broadcast method of traditional marketing and campaigning.
You can use social media to start, develop and manage a relationship with your stakeholders. A range of social media tools let you complete specific tasks, and we'll discuss some of them later:
- Listen (Google Groups, Technorati, Blogs, RSS, Twitter)
- Engage (Twitter)
- Generate content (YouTube, Flickr, Wordpress)
- Create buzz (Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, FriendFeed, Twitter)
- Build networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)
Social Inflence Marketing
Social networks are a high-trust environment where people share friends, experiences & recommendations. Recommendations from friends are still more trusted than results of a Google search. SImilarly, user-generated content is often given more credence than the official message, such as Amazon's customer reviews.
If you can engage people with their own large networks, they will help support your organisation or your cause by sending out messages to their fans & followers.
You could consider using your volunteers to raise your profile and promote your aims and causes on social networks, but make sure that they do so within any guidelines you may have.
For further information about specfic social networks, please see:
Also, download our social media cheat sheet, to help you decide which social network you should consider uploading your content.
Useful links
- Social Media Marketing for Dummies cheat sheet
- Social media for nonprofits
- Mapping your organisation's social media strategy
- Ten ways to change the world through social media
- The case of the 4000 Twitter followers who don't care
Next: Writing for Facebook