MARKETING
Social media requires synergy, plan
Navigating online waters can be challenging as more options emerge By KYLE R. HAYES
W Associate Editor
hen researching social media marketing, the options are seemingly endless, often confusing and social network names can be barely pronounced. With the requisite blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, there’s the added “newbies” of Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, FourSquare and Spotify. By now, some of these networks have become household names, with users numbering in the billions; but others are emerging and offering new services that could help businesses expand a brand’s reach and garner future customers. However, is having an online presence on every possible social media network necessary? At the Greater WatertownNorth Country Chamber of Commerce June speaker series event titled “Social Media and Your Business,” that same question was asked. One answer yelled from the back of the room: “No, it’s all just a waste of time.” However, business advisers are answering the question with another tone. It’s almost always going to aid a business to have a tailored, strategic online presence through social media. “The first thing I tell a client when we’re looking at marketing strategy is to know your customer and know who you want your message to go to,” said Sarah C. O’Connell, a certified business advisor at the Watertown Small Business Development Center. “If your
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NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS
Mandee L. Widrick, owner of ChargedUp Media, is a social media coach.
customer is a Yelp person or a Twitter and Facebook person, then you want them to see you on those networks. If they’re not, why waste your time?” That’s the same sentiment that social media coach and owner of ChargedUp Media Mandee L. Widrick shares. “[My clients and I] talk about who they want to target,” Miss Widrick said. “Some have a clear definition of who they want their customer to be and some need help figuring that out. Usually we talk about their goals and what networks
NNY Business | September 2012
are going to be effective for them.” Miss Widrick has spent the better part of two years building a career as a social media coach and constructing her personal brand. She founded Bit & Bridle magazine, which was a limited run print publication, and in January 2010 turned it into Horse Family Magazine, an online-only magazine. That summer she built a business around people who had asked her to help them set up websites and Facebook pages.
“My first year I was doing more social media management, helping people get their pages set up and posting content for them,” she said. “Then I got more into the coaching because I thought that was more effective for both me and my clients.” Miss Widrick, who has clients throughout the country in places like Iowa and Arizona, noted that the type of business determines what social media avenues should be pursued. “I wouldn’t put someone like a service provider on Pinterest, because they’re probably not going to get the results they want, they’d get better results on Twitter or LinkedIn and Facebook,” she said. “Not that they’d be bad results but I want them to get the best results. A retailer that can sell things with pictures and images of their products would do well on Pinterest.” Investing the time to maintain social media networks should be the starting point when making the decision what, and how many, social networks to begin. Ms. O’Connell stressed that no matter what network a business chooses to become involved with, it’s necessary to integrate that into a brand and keep it up-to-date and maintained properly with fresh content. “Me, personally, I ‘like’ businesses on Facebook that I get value from being their friend or reading their updates,” Ms. O’Connell said. “It’s better to do a few things well than to do a lot of things poorly. A lot of people want to invest their time in follow-