Aug 24, 2010
How to Benefit from Social Media
This is the last of the three-part series on social media. Abbie S. Fink, vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, talks about how her clients have benefited from using social media. Abbie and I met years ago when I hired her in an agency capacity. Thanks to social media, our relationship has evolved to one of great friendship and professional respect.
Q: How have HMA and its clients used social media?
A: HMA’s staff embraced social media a couple years ago, starting with our blog. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter last year. We began introducing the idea of social media to our clients in early 2008. We started with LinkedIn and blogging, easy points of access. For those who wanted more, we added Facebook and Twitter to the mix.
Q: How have HMA and clients been able to promote/generate name awareness, particularly for nonprofits?
A: Our not-for-profit clients led the way in actively participating in in social media. They have found social media to be a low-cost way to connect with potential consumers, donors, media, etc. to promote their mission, events, etc. Strategies are developed, and together, we deliver on those strategies. We’ve also seen an increase in our business-to-business clients as well. By embracing social media to engage with their clients, they have added a new dimension of “conversation” to the client relationships
Q: Have you been able to quantify the impact of social media on the agency and/or its clients?
A: That’s a tough question — anecdotally we know that social media is impacting our business and our clients’ business. This is a relatively new service offering for our clients, something that they are interested in pursuing. The challenge is still the ROI in terms of actual measurement. Using search and other tools we are able to look at mentions, what people are saying, and other forms of information gathering. In the not-for-profit sector, we can show increases in donor participation. Other things like website hits or blog comments are other ways to view impact. We’ve also started talking about what actions are being taken as a result of the client’s social media engagement.
Q: What do you see as the future of social media for agencies like yours?
A: Social media is here to stay. What may change is the form in takes — today it’s Twitter, next year it might be something else. For agencies like HMA to stay relevant in the space, we need to be embracing it, using it, learning about it and then sharing that expertise and knowledge with current and prospective clients.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to organizations using social media, what would that be?
A: Engage, converse and have fun. Social media is an excellent way to develop and maintain relationships — like no other form of customer/client engagement, social media lets you engage with your brand’s users.
Thanks so much to all the social media professionals who participated in this Q&A series. If you have questions or suggestions regarding this topic, please send e-mail to shart@hartpr.com or directly contact any of the experts in this series. And if you like what you’ve read, please consider subscribing to EveryDayPR by clicking the Subscribe button at the top of this page.
How to benefit social media seems to be the million dollar question.
Sometimes it is frustrating to be unable to point to a single dollar of business growth and say, "That came from social media." Sometimes, this makes me wonder if I'm better off crafting a direct mail piece promoting my business than I am writing a blog, or attending an industry function than I am engaging on Facebook.
On the other hand, through social media introductions, I've met in person some great people (you included!), and I know that my web traffic and blog readership has increased – and that must lead to an improvement in my personal brand, no?
I wonder what the tipping point for business will be. What I think will happen is at some point, businesses will bottom line it and say, "How many actual dollars have we made from our engagement on _______ (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc)?" After all, the buck is what comes down to in business.
If public relations and/or social media experts can develop an answer, wonderful. If not, you'll see a degradation in the perceived value (and the investment) in social media.
Fortunately, I think there is still quite a bit of patience, stemming from the understanding that social media is a very powerful tool, once we figure out how to use it to directly drive the bottom line.
As always, Clay, great points. I agree that the jury is still out, especially as social media platforms, apps, etc., continue to be refined – almost to the point of frustration for people like me who don’t see the value of a large focus on the various tools. I’m sure the frequency and reliability of case studies regarding the benefits of social media will increase. As a former journalist, I sometimes long for the good ‘ole days of a morning newspaper being the only – and best – source of information that I need for that day. Thanks for your comments.
Here's how effective social media is:
"…anecdotally we know that social media is impacting our business and our clients’ business
The challenge is still the ROI in terms of actual measurement.
In the not-for-profit sector, we can show increases in donor participation."
Where is the cause and effect connnection here? Only the third statement makes claim to results. It would be enlightening to hear more about the methodology that establised cause and effect and not simply correlation.
When I was a kid, I walked by the store fronts in my home town and looked at all manner of things from jewelry to furniture. I never bought any of it. "Hits," "clicks, " etc. are meaningless unless they turn into what you need – either active support (politics) or purchases (business).
I don't disagree; perhaps the novelty of social media is still just that – too novel to establish some solid ROI and/or measurement indicators. In my experience, social media works best as a supplement to traditional media, including eye-catching and interesting storefronts. In any case, you're right – the bottom line is to influence someone enough to take your desired action step via vote, purchase or whatever. Thanks for your feedback, and keep on reading!