Learn to Sell Successfully

Negotiate confidently, convince customers, practice psychology, rhetoric & strategy for conversations & sales situations, negotiate & win successfully

Simone Janson, Simone Janson, Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9783965961692
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Economia
• Subtopic: Teoria economica

Social media reach ROI: Communicate correctly and measure success
// By Simone Janson

For many companies and marketing people, this is the crucial issue: measuring success and reach in social. Measuring these correctly is not that easy.

Twitter - the discovery of simplicity?

My favorite information, communication and filter tool is and remains Twitter. The idea behind it is simple, but that is exactly what makes it so appealing: More than 140 characters, known as tweets, are not allowed to get rid of information. This forces the sender to concentrate briefly and concisely on the essence of a statement - probably one of the main reasons for the success of the microblogging tool Twitter. The other may be that the short messages are often spiced with a dash of humor, irony and sarcasm. According to an evaluation by Google Trends, Twitter is in fourth place in global statistics - behind Facebook and two networks that have no meaning in Germany.

The tweets are public and can also be found on Google. Above all, they are shown in the so-called timeline of all users who have subscribed to my messages - my so-called followers. If I want to answer someone, I write an @ in front of their Twitter name (e.g. @simonejanson). If I find a message particularly good, I can repeat it (retweet) or note it (Faven). There are also so-called direct messages, DMs for short, which are only intended for certain users. Words within the tweet that I want to emphasize are marked with a # as #hashtag that you can search for. Because this is another special feature of Twitter: Unlike Google and many other search engines, which index search results and therefore only show them with a time delay, tweets appear immediately in the search. This real-time search has given Twitter its reputation as the fastest news medium.

And Twitter can really save time. For example, I recently received a 140-character message saying that my gas provider has filed for bankruptcy. No reason to be happy per se, but I had already been in vain waiting on the hotline to inquire about the repayment and had actually intended to call again. I was able to completely save myself from that. It is of course even better if companies run their customer service entirely on Twitter. The most recent example is the Deutsche Bahn, which employs eight staff at @DB_Bahn and is committed to answering customer queries with a sense of humor. When asked if you could carry your French mastiff in a travel bag, the following dialogue relaxed on Twitter: “@DB_Bahn: @Bertimaus Dogs up to the size of a house cat are transported free of charge… Is your bulldog bigger than a house cat? @Bertimaus: @DB_Bahn no, but much more muscular and therefore the travel bag. that's the only thing that holds 12kg ... @DB_Bahn: @Bertimaus If your dog is significantly more muscular, it is bigger than a domestic cat. Therefore the child price has to be paid. ”

Long since more than banal

Even if I am serious about saving time, you can laugh at the example! Seriously, however, the system with the 140-character short messages is so successful that it has now been transferred to other systems that are used in companies, for example. There are currently over 30 enterprise microblogging providers worldwide. The best known is Yammer, the only German provider is Communote. Like Twitter, these tools enable employees to exchange links and information quickly and in real time, so that they can work together on projects. with which not only public and private messages but also file attachments can be sent in an internal company network. In addition, unlike on Twitter, there are mature group functions and discussion threads that can be tagged and found again later. While corporate wikis always claim to be complete, the communication in microblogging is completely spontaneous and intuitive. And like on Twitter, employees can also communicate informal things in this way - the classic floor radio sends its regards. Nevertheless, there are some serious differences to Twitter that are due to the special needs of companies: With Communote, for example, file attachments can be sent along with what eMail- Traffic replaced. More than 140 characters are allowed and the discussion threads can be tagged, which makes traceability considerably easier. The software can be integrated into existing IT systems, also works behind a firewall and takes into account German data protection regulations.

Twitter has long been more than a medium for banal short messages, but a real product viability tool. However, reservations are still high. I counter this: Just try it out for yourself. Like all social networks, Twitter is not just a tool, it depends on the people you meet and get to know there. It is up to them that we perceive the mutual exchange as fruitful, productive and innovative or as a senseless waste of time. If I follow the right people who do wise things, my timeline will also give me useful and important information. But I still remember that at the beginning I also asked myself what Twitter should be good for. Back then I was still very enthusiastic about Facebook. However, that has changed fundamentally.

Facebook: a crazy pub owner from California?

My problem with Facebook: As it grows in size - there are now a good 750 million users - it becomes increasingly confusing. On Facebook you can actually turn on or off every function such as notifications, hiding messages that you do not want to read, the public of your profile and its data, etc. The constant changes quickly make even the most experienced user lose sight of important setting options. Precarious: Who is not careful, involuntarily releases data out of sheer ignorance. Because disclosing everything to everyone is the standard setting on Facebook. If you do not want this, you first have to click through several pages and then laboriously set all settings to private.

But that's not the only thing that makes Facebook so nerve-wracking: The constant big and small mistakes that occur every now and then are added. Now one may object that it is completely normal that an application does not work here and there for a page with this range of functions. The fact that the many apps that have been programmed for Facebook by external developers do not always work 30 percent can hardly be blamed for the “blue giant” itself. However, it becomes critical if, for example, entire company pages disappear on Facebook. That happened to the Hamburg personnel consultancy Atenta. After numerous messages on Facebook, the page reappeared after exactly XNUMX days - without explanation. If you enter the search term “facebook page disappeared” on Google, you will find that the problem is not an unknown bug. For a company, this can mean economic ruin if it is too dependent on Facebook.

From the website in social media? Is that wise?

The men's magazine FHM, which closed its regular website and relocated its online presence to Facebook, once caused heated discussions in the social media and marketing industry. The reason for this step was that you want to be where your readers are. A good, logical idea for some, because you can reach more readers with less effort, for others, sheer madness. Presumably, however, the operation of the website had become too complex for the publisher, because the magazine was discontinued only six months later. Another publisher is now publishing the magazine. The irony of the story is that the new creators apparently do not believe in the Facebook-only strategy: in any case, work is now underway on a new website.

Cut costs and reduce labor - who didn't want that? But even if the step away from your own page to Facebook seems tempting: Let it be better. Not only do you make yourself unnecessarily dependent on Facebook, you also have to come to terms with the very limited options for page design and other restrictions. Martin Oetting, partner and head of research at the Word-of-Mouth marketing platform trnd, commented very aptly:

“Facebook is an extremely successful pub. The largest in the world. 500 million people go in and out. Of course, if I want to make my drinks known and sell them, I can decorate a table with my pennants in the giant pub and have my drinks served there. Good idea. But is that why I should close my own pub? What if the host on Facebook is tired of me at some point? What if he changes the rules from one day to the next and I am no longer allowed in? What if he shows me a table right at the toilet where my customers can hardly stand it? It seems to me that the thought of relying solely on a somewhat crazy pub inn keeper from California for my own brand communication on the Internet seems very risky. ”

Internet trap

So Facebook can not only be a terrific time eater. It can also be dangerous for companies that only rely on it. The company promises its users the exact opposite: the clear application of all necessary communication options at a glance. eMails, SMS, chat and bulletin board messages in one. A comfortable photo album, the possibility to watch videos and play ... and and and. And all this on just one platform, where users would otherwise have to use a different offer for each function. Sounds tempting too time-saving - doesn't it? No wonder that Facebook is now asking its users to set it up as a homepage: Facebook wants to be our first point of contact on the Internet. Because it's so nice and simple.

For many, this method works very well, as an experiment by the Swiss agency Rod shows. 50 subjects waived Facebook for an expense allowance of CHF 300 for 30 days. Other social networks were allowed. The Facebookless felt socially excluded on the one hand, but on the other hand admitted to working more focused and communicating more effectively with good friends. Particularly striking: Most had only organized all of their contacts on Facebook. The constantly updated telephone and address book is so convenient - dates such as birthdays, telephone numbers and eMail-Addresses from friends, family and acquaintances simply weren't written down anywhere else. And: Because they couldn't use Facebook, many left the computer out entirely. This shows how much Facebook now dominates computer use.

More is better: Alternatives to Facebook

One tool for all tasks? From a time management point of view, this certainly sounds tempting: enter your password once, that's it. And the myth persists - for example, when it comes to Google's new Google+ network, which is currently preparing to seriously compete with Facebook. For example, Thomas Mauch presents various professional uses of Google+ at imgriff.com - for example the possibility to save his bookmarks here, to organize online learning groups or to conduct live group discussions in the Hangout video chat program. And he asks the ...