Rule No. 4: On your marks, get set, go! – But which topics?
In Web 2.0 companies or individual business divisions can increase their visibility and – by selectively networking with an original customer pitch – improve commitment to their own stakeholders. The greatest challenge initially lies in identifying company content for interested parties. However, the knowledge about your own products often hides sufficient potential for exciting content. Regular insider tips, practical examples and discussions permit a dialog to quickly arise with the target group in the Internet.
If a car manufacturer gives DIY tips for spare-time mechanics or if IT companies explain how they optimize business processes optimize, specialist knowledge from their own field of activity quickly brings added value for the user. At the same time, the user’s willingness to actively become involved in the groups and on Twitter will increase. It is thus not sensible to propagate news items on the social media channels now and then. On the contrary, companies should draft a specific agenda in advance.
Rule No. 5: Beware! One-way street
The golden rule in the social web is “Content is King”. In social networks in particular companies can try out innovative and even funny ideas. There are no limits to creativity. If incentives are offered to the users, they will also regularly return to the group. This can for example also be promoted using vouchers. So-called “Best Article Awards”, combined with a benefit, also motivate users to submit top-quality articles.
The best thing that can happen to a group is to have a certain momentum of its own. This means that the members themselves generate content and share opinions. However, company communications managers should stay on the ball and provide suitable feedback as soon as possible. A brief comment is sometimes enough to show that an article has attracted attention and was popular with readers.
The user making 20-30 daily tweets or posts online soon acquires the reputation of being a spammer – especially if the same articles appear unchanged on all social media channels. Only the relevant tweets and one or two main pieces of information, illustrated by images, should be submitted to Facebook on a daily basis.
Rule No. 6: Online meets offline
A get-together or a seminar – contacts really only stabilize through personal encounters and this also applies in the social web. Real events that intensify topics previously discussed in a XING group are ideal. Presentations and lectures with a subsequent face-to-face exchange of information generate value added to those present.
Quo vadis social media ?
The future is virtual and that is why it is high time for B2B companies to also position themselves in social networks. Web 2.0 has already rung in a paradigm change in communications and fundamentally changed the relationship of companies to customer and stakeholders. The focus is no longer on the product, but on the consumer. It is therefore crucial to take the individual interests of the customer into consideration and always listen to the customer’s opinions and requirements. If you don’t listen to the market you can – under certain circumstances – have to suffer the experience of customers “voting with their feet”.
