Stairwellblog

If you think you can’t compete with a Fortune 500 company keep reading, because even a bottomless advertising budget can be a waste if they make some of the dumb mistakes that keep popping up in the social media stratosphere. If you can avoid these mistakes, and more importantly learn from them, you can completely negate any advantage they have. Lou Malnati’s Pizza has roughly a fifth of Domino’s fanbase. That doesn’t sound impressive until you realize that Lou has 30 locations and Domino’s has over nine thousand. Dominos beats Lou 300 to 1. Yet they’re still keeping up with them in the online advertising world. Lesson: Executed correctly, social media strategies really can level the playing field.

Even large companies with gigantic advertising teams forget the biggest rule of social media. Constant updates are the key. You would think that with that kind of budget, they could offer to have someone update their page 5 or 6 times a day. But lots of pages like Subway and Burger King only update their twitter every few days. (Burger King looks like it’s gone months without an update) Smaller chains like Potbelly Sandwich Works and Qdobe Mexican Grill have managed a bigger social media presence on their Facebook and twitter – despite being smaller.

Another rule that big corporations forget is that you need to keep people’s attention. With social media you aren’t just competing with others in your business, you’re competing with the entire Internet. On average, every second 7 new things (videos, articles, pages, etc) are posted on the internet and any one of them can grab the attention of a potential customer. If all you have is a link to your web page, and a few posts you might get people’s attention for a moment, but the likelihood of getting fans and regular viewers is slim. Pizza Hut has 1.2 Million Facebook fans, while Domino’s has 400,000. Is it because Pizza Hut is really 3 times better than Dominos? Or is it because Domino’s just posted a few ads on their page and Pizza Hut has mobile apps, menus, coupons, and constant updates to keep your attention?

A lot of companies big and small don’t take advantage of the simple fact that social media allows you to talk with your audience. It gives you a free, 24/7 365 instant focus group database. It doesn’t hurt to ask your fanbase questions and respond to their comments. Southwest Airlines recently got some bad press because of their policies regarding overweight people. One of the people they kicked off a flight for being heavy happened to be someone with 1.2 million Twitter followers. A press release wasn’t going to do much to quiet that many people, so they went on their own Twitter and started responding. It helped quell some bad press. On the other end American Airlines updates their Facebook with bulletins and messages, but doesn’t answer any of the dozens of complaints and questions. Just answering a few every couple of hours would go a long way in building their fan base.

Speaking of American Airlines, they are making a mistake that a lot of major companies are making. If all you have is bulletins and news items it will turn off a lot of your fan base. Twitter and Facebook are great ways to spread your word but they aren’t loudspeakers. People see advertisements all over the Internet. They aren’t going to sign up for a page just to get more. Try putting in some interesting links or giving your web page personality. One of the reasons Southwest has a good Twitter presence is because they clearly have a real person who enjoys interacting with the social media crowd (see examples below) and it shows. Ultimately, a lot of social media success is putting in the effort. It might take some time but it’s definitely worth it.

Sources:

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/05/20/buzz-watch:-southwest-airlines%E2%80%99-rapping-flight-attendant

http://www.tipsfromthetlist.com/21375.html

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/ceos-are-social-media-slackers-study/

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/awst/2010/01/11/AW_01_11_2010_p42-193334.xml&headline=Airline%20Social%20Media%20Strategies%20Vary

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