Social media strategies require total commitment, say experts

Many organisations underestimate the effort that is required to build strong social relationships

Successful social media campaigns require in-depth knowledge of the target audience

Experts speaking at the Social Networking World Forum in London today warned delegates not to underestimate the cost, resources and time it takes to run a social media strategy.

Now in its second year, the event attracted many more visitors than last year, reflecting the growing interest in social media.

In 2009, there were only a few hundred attendees and the exhibitors were small social media startups and mobile dating services. This year, the exhibition hall was double the size and brimming with social media consultants.

The discussion has moved on as well, from the need for businesses to embrace a social networking strategy to how firms should best manage that strategy.

Mars senior brand manager Muhammad Karim said it is essential for businesses to be aware of the costs of long-term social strategies. For it to work, firms need to realise that implementing a social networking strategy is not as simple as launching a few pages on different social networks.

Karim said that while businesses should be aware of what they want to achieve with a social networking strategy, they should consider hiring an outside agency to monitor conversations relating to their brand.

“A Facebook could suddenly collect 2,000 friends. Monitoring all the comments can take a lot of work but you have to staff it. You can’t just dabble," he said.

Social media strategies require total commitment, say experts

Many organisations underestimate the effort that is required to build strong social relationships

When it comes to monitoring social media, there are both free and paid-for tools available, but Karim said the latter will allow more customisation. “It’s a question of time versus money. Free tools take more time as they are not specific,” he said.

Karim said the danger of not educating employees about social media or investing enough money in social strategies was demonstrated by the loss in sales Dominos Pizza suffered after three of its employees posted a video up on YouTube of them adding disgusting ingredients to a pizza.

Alex Miller, head of social media at digital media agency i-level, said, “It is time for social media to grow up.”

Miller criticised respectable brands like M&Ms for launching spam campaigns on Twitter in order to get the name in the trending topics.

“Marketers are still discussing questions like how can I get more followers on Twitter when they should be asking, how can we build better relationships with customers,” he said.

Meanwhile, David Henry, Monster Worldwide digital marketing vice president, argued that people often underestimate the time it takes to build social communities.

“The individuals running the community need to participate in the discussion and so they need in-depth knowledge of the subject,” he said. “It could be the full-time job of one person just trying to understand what people are saying in social networks about a brand.”

Henry said organisations should also consider educating their staff in social media, setting guidelines for using social networks and measuring what their competitors are doing in the space.

Torsten Wingenter, Lufhansa head of social media strategy, advised organisations not to bite off more than they can chew.

“We only do baby steps at the moment [in social media] as we couldn’t truly interact with the customer if we tried to do too much," he said.

"People want to talk to us and not an agency. We are waiting for time to tell whether we need more people to communicate and interact on the strategy."