Everyone is talking about social media, but your company or agency refuses to jump on board. Well, your Boss does as least. How can you help change her mind? Be creative and focus on providing information to your boss about what your customers want. And here are 5 ways you can use social media tools to discover that information and “wow” her.
- No one wants to be left behind, so start forwarding interesting articles to your boss about what is happening in the online world. A good place to find articles is at Mashable.com. Also, a great reference is the Center for Marketing Research at UMass-Dartmouth. In 2009, they updated their study on social media use in the fastest growing Inc. 500 companies and found that almost 45% of them blog, 52% use Twitter and overall, 91% of them use at least one social media tool.
- Looking at hiring a new employee? Use LinkedIn to help find someone that is a perfect fit, or do research on someone that has already applied. You can search a variety of ways: Search companies or competitors names to find people that previously worked for them, search by other keywords, or ask your networks and groups to recommend someone.
- Want to hear what people are saying about your company? Do a quick search on Twitter by your company name. You will be shocked when you actually get results! Even if you don’t send out tweets, convince your boss to set up an account in order to “hold” your brand name and then set up keyword searches so that you can keep tabs on what people are saying. Every morning, spend 5-10 minutes reviewing the previous day’s tweets.
- You can also set up a Google alert to look for any information posted on the web about your company, your top executives or your competitors. Google will send you the information as it appears, or send you a daily/weekly summary. Forward this information to your boss before anyone else and then go in and ask for a raise.
- Mention to your boss that you think customers would be happy to write good reviews of your products or services on Yelp. There may already be reviews there, so check it out first! Create a cute card to send out or put on the counter asking people to leave comments on Yelp. If you get feedback that is less than favorable, be ready to respond and correct the problem.
These are just a few simple ideas to get you started. Be sure and keep your own networks up to date because you never know when a great opportunity might be referred to you by an on-line friend!