Today’s post is by David Oates,Vice President of International, Actiance.
At the recent FS Forum seminar on “Will your social media strategy get you fired?” one of the overwhelming themes from the audience was how to get sponsorship from senior management who have two questions upper most in their minds – “what’s the benefit?” and “what’s the risk?”
One of the key benefits of social is engaging with an audience that doesn’t regularly use traditional communications methods. Look at your target demographics. If it’s under 34 and you’re not on social, you’re not talking to your prospects and customers. In the UK for example, the largest and fastest growing age group on Facebook is 25-34 with nearly 9 million users, followed by 18-24 years olds (source Socialbakers). As most of them grew up using text and instant messaging not email, social is just another communication tool.
If you’re not talking to your audience, your competitors soon will be. Whilst a survey from Assetinum earlier in the year found that only half of the top 50 private banks actively replied to tweets despite nearly all of them having a Twitter account, it is not a trend likely to continue. Particularly as it starts to dawn just how much additional engagement Visa gained with its Olympic social media campaign.
Depending on how you deploy social media usage, engaging with customers leads to an increase in revenue, reduces contact centre calls and potentially lowers customer acquisition costs. Some organisations have even found it useful as a general employee communication tool in times where other methods are too slow. During the London riots, BNP Paribas used it to help staff move safely around the capital.
The benefits aren’t just related to increased sales and improved customer service either. Over time, engaging directly with your customers, prospects and even your aggressors provides the type of in-depth data that can be used to enhance and develop future products and services.
The risks for any organisation engaging in social media shouldn’t be ignored, but neither should it be an inhibitor. Letting staff “loose” on social media doesn’t mean giving up an organisation’s hard won reputation or its squeaky clean compliance record. Understand the threat landscape from data leakage, malware and user behaviour and how it fits into compliance concerns is key to mitigating the risk. Once you have a better understanding about the risks, it’s easier to see the steps required to ensure your organisation remains safe.
But as my colleague Victor Gaxiola says – it’s not “why’ we should be using social senior management need to ask, it’show.
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