social media
Is social media right for you?
Jenny Boyatt leads on Social Marketing for the University of Wales, Newport and runs the @newportuni twitter feed
I
n recent years businesses large and small have jumped on the social media bandwagon – nearly all with a Facebook page and Twitter account – not to
mention those who have embraced You Tube, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Flickr and a million more. But does it really work in creating leads for
business? And what should people be aware of when engaging in social media for their business? One of the biggest advantages of social
media is that it allows businesses to build their brand and personality. Both students and our business customers tell us that they love the friendly community-atmosphere of the university. We can portray that through social media in a way which the formality of more traditional marketing activity can prevent. Social media allows us to be a bit more fun,
chat with users openly and really show the heart of the organisation. Social media also means that your
customers can do the work for you. When you post something online you never know who might retweet or share to their
contacts so the potential for leads is unlimited. While social media is often regarded as a
new approach to marketing it actually just goes back to good old fashioned word of mouth – which customers trust and value implicitly. A simple website alone is no longer always
enough for potential customers and social media is a useful tool to really add value to what you do as a business. Customers are now used to seeing companies have a whole suite of online platforms to find out about products and services and want to use these to delve deeper. We often tweet about the comings and
goings of the university – promoting our graduate showcases, during business events, about the students doing their homework sunbathing on the lawns – all just on a phone so they can be uploading quickly and on location and to add something to what we do here at the university and make it a bit more personable. One of the most engaged with stories on
the university social media recently was a very short video filmed on a phone on the Olympic Torch going past the City Campus – not
selling anything and without any promotional message – but reflecting the excitement that was in Newport that day and placing us as a business with its heart firmly in the centre of the community. As well as letting your customers know
about you, what do you know about them? Social media is a fantastic way to listen into
conversations of your followers and about your area of interest. Free tools like Hootsuite let you listen in to
areas of interest to see what people are saying on Twitter. Social Mention also allow you to
30 THEbusiness QUARTER
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