In-gage : Straight talk with Frank

I had the chance to sit down with Frank Forte to discuss the use of social media in the Business World.  Frank works for a leading Canadian Cell Phone Company: Baka Mobile

How do you see the use of social media impacting the way business is conducted?

Customers will rely on social media more and more to determine whether they want to do business with a certain company, brand, or individual.

For businesses that choose to participate, they have the opportunity to create or join a conversation around their brand. The largest impact is usually whether or not a company responds to complaints through social media. No response tells an online community that the company does not care, and makes the complaint more "legit" which can turn off potential customers. A response that deals with a complaint, either compensating a customer or giving them more knowledge can turn the situation into a positive experience.

It is important for companies to give a consistent experience across channels. Some companies have great social media teams that seem to care (e.g. @RogersHelps on Twitter), but they do not have the authority to deal with legitimate complaints, and when phoning into these companies, the experience is completely different (in a negative way). This disconnect makes the investment in social media a wasted effort.

Is it necessary for companies to engage in the use of social media?

The short answer is "no". Just like companies do not need to use telemarketing. Both have the potential to damage a brand if they are not done properly. There is a huge opportunity to reach many customers in a positive way with a much lower cost, so those that do their research and take advantage can benefit from social media.

What forms of social media do you use in the business you are involved with?
We have a diverse customer demographic so we use many of the popular social media channels, mainly focused on Twitter and Facebook, and increasing involvement with LinkedIn and Google Plus. We also use YouTube to provide product information, and have responded to some questions through that channel. The current goals are to help customers find us online (along with our product information), and also to provide good customer service by responding to customer feedback and dealing with customer service issues promptly.

We integrate social buttons on our website (e.g. in our footer, and for each product page). We just started adding product pages on LinkedIn. We promote deals and contests through Twitter and Facebook (and now Google Plus). We create and embed YouTube videos on our product pages. We do not have the resources to create and manage blog, although that is an avenue we would like to explore.

We have tried advertising through social media, but did not get any engagement (practically no clicks).

What negative implications or dangers does the use of social media
present to a business?

Social media can improve transparency. If a business is unethical or has poor quality products or services, it can be very damaging to a business. The negative effects of social media are more of a concern for large brands that have more to lose. Social media campaigns can have unexpected results. Obama tried to get good ideas from citizens through a Digg style website, unfortunately it had runaway consequence of promoting the legalization of marijuana.

Many large companies and websites have been hacked through social media accounts. It is important to protect user credentials for social media accounts, otherwise someone can pose as your company and post very damaging comments or get access to sensitive information or steal customer lists and contacts. Cyber security concerns should not prevent a company from participating in social media... the same way it should not prevent a company from using computers.

What direction if any would you like to see "social media" go in the
business world?

I would like to see it raise customer service standards. Ideally, businesses that treat their customers fairly will be rewarded, and those that do not will be forced to improve their standards.

It is called "social media" not "business media" for a reason. These environments are not built for transactional business, they are built and used mainly for entertainment and communication. The main overlap is in the communication (although some businesses in entertainment, e.g. online games do very well in this space). For this reason, I think most businesses will benefit from using social media to communicate with their customers.

I would say that LinkedIn is the most successful business oriented social media site, and it is used mainly for networking and recruitment, but not so much for direct sales.