How far should companies go to check out the relevance of social media channels to their audiences?
Oliver (see comment under Social Media Strategies) has made some interesting points about reviewing the audiences who are using social media channels. You can obviously approach the owners of particular social media channels such as Facebook etc to find out the age groups and profiles but they are changing all the time.
I also think that online and offline channels are merging so much and are so dynamic. It is hard to say who is reading this or that all the time. Through a social media channel an issue can suddenly spring up. I think companies need to be aware of the issues just as much as the audiences. If you are a brand which is concerned about green issuess then you need to know what is being said on blogs etc and most importantly you need to know which blogs and social media networks are most influential for the debate as a whole if you want to be a leader in that debate.
Put in a mention of any company nowadays into a blog search engine or onto Facebook and chances are they are going to be covered. They are out there. Brands are fragmenting across blogs and social media networks and businesses need to be tracking what is said otherwise they could issue releases for example or campaigns which are off the pulse.
I do think audience is importance but issues are important too. I also think that blogs and social media networks provide new opportunities for companies to attract audiences and also to revitalise their brands, energise them and make them more responsive and contemporary.
There has to be a lot of companies who have Facebook groups but are they interacting with these?
A lot of people get hung up on measurement or whether or not social media campaigns will work. It is important to start, to experiment and find out what works. And aboveall, I think it is important to embrace the new and enjoy it and not to fear it too much.
