Earlier this year, a study into the impact of social media as a business tool by McCann Erickson the global marketing services agency, demonstrated that almost two thirds of marketing specialists (65.6%) were not up to speed with social media or how it works as a marketing tool. It is also worth pointing out that the marketing people surveyed were in the larger businesses.

Let us be very clear: this is not a fad. Of those surveyed by McCann’s 86% of respondents realised that social media is here to stay and set to grow. It is also moving rapidly from private communication to a business tool. I see a lot of e-mails from PR businesses and, whereas a year ago few quoted a Twitter or Facebook site address, now they nearly all do. They’re at the cutting edge of the communications industry and where they lead, their clients will surely follow.

But there will need to be a change of corporate mindset to gain full advantage. According to the McCann survey, in almost half of the businesses covered the IT department proactively blocks access to popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter, rendering staff incapable of monitoring what is being said about their brands or discovering what real, live people actually want. Businesses clearly need to accept that, whilst plenty of use will be personal, it genuinely has a commercial benefit. Senior marketing people clearly lack understanding of social media and are consequently reluctant to apply its potential to their brands. 67.5% of those surveyed thought that the sites were used more by the under 25s. However, according to figures from market researchers Nielsen, the age group making the most use of Twitter is 35 – 49 year olds (42% of traffic) and almost two thirds of them only access it at work. Facebook’s figures show that 25-35 year olds use the site as much as 16–25 year olds.

But come on is it really a business tool? Despite the above, 76% of marketers think social media has a place in the commercial communications mix. Since the figures are contradictory, it appears that a lot of them mean, “yes it’s got a place, but not here”. A warning: I recall being told by an advertising old hand that in the 1950s a number of agencies went to the wall because they didn’t believe this newfangled idea of TV advertising would work.

A recent article in the Times Business Life section recommended that businesses should avoid Twitter entirely (they couldn’t be worried about the effect it would have on their advertising revenues, could they?). This is actually a reflection of what McCann’s found in their survey. Approaching a third of those businesses which have an account admit it’s inactive and getting on for half of them post tweets once a week or less.

OK, so, yes, it’s the real deal. But what can you actually do with it? Businesses that are already actively using social sites quote a number of benefits. The big one is PR and profile raising and there’s a fairly large use of advertising. Interestingly, surveys and trends analysis don’t feature as a big purpose. That surprises me because here are millions of people actively telling you what they think, describing hopes and fears and wants. Correctly approached, this has to be the best available form of free market research known to man.

More important, this is word-of-mouth advertising (perhaps that should read word of mouse). I have never met a businessman who didn’t want more of that and there it is available on a plate. We all now have the opportunity to influence millions of people on a global basis at the click of a button. What are the impacts of this? The first one that is widely agreed is that you can communicate far more often with customers than traditionally thought wise. The 2009 reality is that mobile phone calls, text messages, e-mail and now social network sites have made us into communication junkies. Not only can you communicate more often, you should do.

The second impact relates to other media. The average family now spends more time online than watching TV. This may be because people prefer the virtual friends they have made online to Simon Cowell’s version of reality, but it’s a growing trend. At the same time there is a rising generation who get their information via the net and never read a newspaper. Equally, there is a perception that using social sites may change the way we do business – even fewer face-to-face meetings and phone calls. Thirdly, businesses will need to write properly. This might sound like professional snobbery but so many businesses just can’t do it. Their communication is stilted, self-centred and dull. More than that, it would seem beyond their capabilities to write a fresh, interesting message once a week, never mind daily, but that’s the ask. Speaking from personal experience there are some people in the marketing communications business who aren’t much better. Time and again I read press releases, brochures, adverts – you name it – which talk at people, which are all about us, not about you the potential customer and which I doubt would sell the end of a rope to a drowning man.

On a positive note, the potential to reach a massive audience at zero cost is definitely there. It isn’t easy because you are asking people to make an active choice to look at your posting – a very different proposition to seeing an ad in traditional media. I recently referred in P&P to Lauren Luke’s Facebook posting – the most visited in the UK. Check it out – she does it from her bedroom with an ordinary computer and a cheap camera. The message from Lauren Luke is that you have to engage people’s interest with news, information, advice and, yes, entertainment. You can’t expect success from banging your advertising message home.

The experience of Simon Turner at clothes2order.com is instructive. They’re an online printwear specialist and for a business-to-business audience they firmly believe that Twitter is the right site. At the time of writing they are running a campaign aimed at businesses such as PR agents to win a T shirt to their own design. Turner says that developing the process fully by following your audience can be time consuming but the process of putting out two or three daily tweets takes about ten minutes per day. He stresses that if you’re going to develop this market you’ll need to be doing it that often. Less than once a week is a waste of effort.

Twitter is essentially conversation, but it is perceived as having a business edge to it – it’s not just what Stephen Fry had for breakfast. Berkeley PR who organise Twitter campaigns for clients, recommend the following steps. First you have to find people to follow (Twitter term for staying in touch with) who you hope will also follow you. The issue is who do you follow? Local sports and social clubs, large employers in your catchment area, local PR and other agencies and local journalists would be a good start.

Any of these might say ‘anybody know a supplier of polo shirts’ (if only!). More likely would be something akin to ‘we’re setting up a five-a-side team; anyone want a game?’ Bingo! Sales opportunity. Similarly, those local journalists may use Twitter to source stories. Apparently, some will ask on a dead news day if anyone’s got a story – surely you have!

There is a marvellous free service which you are recommended to use – Twilerts. This sends you emails detailing any reference to your chosen keywords. You can have as many as you like but make them specific – ‘football’ would inundate you. Note that this is going to demand time if you have a lot of keywords. One recommendation from Berkeley is to have your local town as a keyword. This might generate a lot of dead information, but it would also give you a stack of contacts and, with intelligent use, opportunities. The immediacy of Twitter means that you are likelier to be in pole position on those opportunities.

Aim to draft tweets which mix company information with news and conversation. The content should engage with the audience, be authentic and credible, it should answer questions and give out interesting industry news. Above all keep it fresh, new and varied.

Content

You should look to draft tweets that are a balanced mix of company news and conversation with potential customers. Companies should treat Twitter relationships the same way they would any other customer relationship. To do this businesses should look to write Tweets based upon the following criteria:

• Engaging with the audience
• Authentic & believable content
• Respond to customer questions
• Distribute interesting industry news
• Provide links to company news

One of the most complex features of Twitter for brands to get right is the hashtag, (a topic with a hash symbol (”#”) at the start to identify it).

Twitter hashtags like #followfriday <http://mashable.com/2009/03/06/twitterfollowfriday/> help spread information on Twitter while also organising it.

The hashtag is a favourite tool of conferences and event organisers, but it’s also a way for Twitter users to organise themselves: if everyone agrees to append a certain hashtag to tweets about a topic, it becomes easier to find that topic in search, and more likely the topic will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Berkeley PR advises its customers on how to identify, track, use, and organise hashtags in an efficient and useful way. Paul Stallard, account director at Berkeley PR (Twitter: @Paul_Stallard)

Marketing Survey 2009

Commenting on the study, Joanna Randall head of PR at McCann Erickson Bristol, said: “There is a real thirst for information and knowledge on the subject of social media which is constantly evolving – making it hard to keep up with the latest trends. We have established this report as part of an ongoing study into usage and attitude, run through our specialist SoMe (Social Media) unit.

“This study highlights that some of the UK’s major businesses are ignoring social media channels – but they do so at their peril. Word of mouth is now more powerful than ever; opinions can be shared with a global audience at the click of a button; we all have the ability to influence, both positively and negatively, and therefore as marketing professionals we should be considering how best to harness the power of social media.”

Social media community per centage of marketers with a presence:

• Facebook 72.8%
• Twitter 42.4%
• LinkedIn 40.2%
• YouTube 28.3%
• Flickr 14.1%
• Google Groups 12.0%
• My Space 10.9%
• Bebo 3.3%
• Plaxo 1.1%

Source: McCann Erickson UK Social Media in Marketing Survey 2009

Opinion was split on how social media impacts on traditional forms of communication (eg: telephone and face to face) with 48.2% agreeing that this new form of ‘keeping in touch’ has a negative impact on traditional communication methods versus 51.8% disagreeing.

Primary functions for social media marketing by UK business

• Profile raising/PR 51.2%
• Networking 48.8%
• Advertising 30.5%
• Surveys/studies 24.4%
• Recruitment 19.5%
• Trends analysis 11.0%
• Issues management/crisis handling 4.9%

Source: McCann Erickson UK Social Media in Marketing Survey 2009

Twitter usage by marketing professionals – number of tweets posted by those with a Twitter presence

• Occasionally (once a week or less) 43.2%
• One per day 5.4%
• 2 – 5 per day 13.5%
• 6 – 10 per day 8.1%
• 10 – 20 per day 0.0%
• I have a Twitter account but it is not active 29.7%

Source: McCann Erickson UK Social Media in Marketing Survey 2009

For more information about Printwear & Promotion 2010, call Exhibitions Manager Richard

Smith on 01622 699172 or email rsmith@datateam.co.uk. Printwear & Promotion 2010 takes place in Hall 12 of the NEC from February 28 to March 2. For the first time, the Promota Exhibition will run concurrently on March 1 and 2. Registration will operate independently.

See www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk

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