EduMusings

While social media companies struggle to find a way to turn a profit off their technologies, at least the rest of us can be at ease knowing our efforts ultimately lead to a fattening of the bottom line.

A joint study by social media platform, Wetpaint and Altimeter group, found that companies with high levels of engagement in the social media sphere saw an increase in revenue, while companies with low levels actually saw a dip. Not surprisingly, researchers found that depth of engagement increased exponentially as companies expanded to more social media channels. The viral nature of the internet and especially social media channels probably plays a big role in the success of companies on these sites. Also not surprisingly, the best content was that which was written in a conversational tone, as opposed to more traditional “marketing speak” which is centered on talking points.

With over 21% percent of marketing budgets on average being spent on “interactive marketing” it’s important to figure out how and why social media use can increase interaction, applicants and eventually revenue for your institution. Just like with retention, engagement is key for these top companies in keeping and attracting customers. Engaged customers are involved and invested in the product which breeds loyalty.

Here are some of the strategies that the top companies used:

• Channels- gain a deep understanding of the advantage of different tools. For example, use Twitter as a customer support and news outlet, and Facebook to create a community.

• Stay the course- Toyota’s social media supervisor says, “once you’re in, you can’t gracefully exit.”

• Take the Risk- before these companies dove into social media, they accepted that they didn’t have control over everything that would be said about their brand. They realized that the potential benefits far outweighed the risk.

• Uniform messaging- just because it’s social media, doesn’t mean that Marketing 101 is irrelevant. Make sure your messaging and voice remains consistent over all channels. The form of delivery is the only variable here.

So it makes sense that these companies with big brands and great content would attract consumers. But how do they transfer this into revenue? And how does this apply to a smaller institution? It’s probably easy for a big name institution to garner attention, but what about the smaller players?

To answer the first question, it’s the feedback loop that keeps these businesses in the black. These companies solicit commentary and feedback and use it to make their products better. For example,Starbucks has a site where coffee fans can share ideas, vote on other’s ideas and see what the company has done in response to these suggestions. User input makes the company better, increases loyalty and ultimately increases sales (Intelliworks has one too, check it out). In regards to how smaller institutions can gain traction, you can see from this New York Times article that social media is for everyone. You don’t have to be Dell or Starbucks or Stanford or Harvard to gain loyal followers. These small business owners have gained intensely loyal followers by treating their customers well. Starting off with a small customer base, these food cart vendors went “viral” as their fans spread the word. Social media helps equalize the disparity between big name brands and smaller home-grown ones- what matters most is the quality of content.