Dave Fleet, Vice President of Digital at Edelman’s Toronto office, and I sat down after his Social Media Breakfast Ottawa presentation to discuss some of the top social media trends that business can expect to come to fruition in 2011. Among the top trends discussed in this video are influence, content curation, search engine optimization, privacy and the importance of having a crisis communications plan. The discussion also offers important information for government workers and communicators who are working with their organizations to implement social media strategies.
Thank you for being with us for the second month of our new blog. In case you missed any posts, here is a recap, beginning with, in chronological order, the lastest installments in our ongoing series on getting technology to market, The Commercialization Ecosystem, which explored startup incubation, the right stuff entrepreneurs need to succeed and other pearls of wisdom.
The acquisition of the social media-monitoring platform Radian6 by enterprise cloud computing company Salesforce for $326 million made headlines this week as a major win for the Canadian venture capital and startup community.
Radian6 is a prime example of how a startup can be successful by establishing itself as a leader in a relatively unknown and risky space. Social media monitoring platforms are still far from perfect and were in their infancy when Radian6 entered the market. The huge acquisition also supports the argument that entrepreneurs should build their companies to sell, even if they haven’t the slightest ambition to do so.
Monitoring social media is like drinking from a fire hose. If you don’t abridge the flow, you will get washed away. As a community manager, I have an intimate understanding of what it feels like to be pummeled and drenched by the waves of content that constantly come at me. However, I also realize the tremendous opportunities that float alongside the masses of Tweets, status updates and blog posts published on the web every second of every day.
Measuring market demand through social media is a growing opportunity that may prove to be extremely valuable to entrepreneurs. There are many companies currently developing software to measure “social media sentiment” to determine public perception over time and pinpoint when a brand is under attack and, more importantly, why. This tactic requires software to siphon targeted streams of content from the social media fire hose to measure mentions of a company or person as well as if the mention was positive, negative or neutral. However, software of the caliber produced by companies like Meltwater Group is still in its early stages and can be expensive for a startup budget and produce overly intricate analysis for early stage companies.
As a community manager, I admit I am rather biased when it comes to explaining the value of online communities, so I promise to do my best to be both balanced and accurate as I weigh their merits and demerits. If you’re reading this post, you’ve likely already heard the hoopla about how bustling and engaged online communities can be valuable for businesses. What you may not know is how they can be specifically beneficial to you, the entrepreneur in the ever-crucial stages of developing a startup when budgets are low and time is precious.
A common misconception that many people have about social media is that it is free. Sure, the platforms on their own don’t cost a nickel. But if the intention is to use them for business, they require a considerable level of resources, especially human resources required to develop a strategy and then to carry out online activities. You need to have a crystal-clear understanding of your goals and the processes through which you will achieve those goals for your investment in social media to be worthwhile. Trust me, social media is no light undertaking to be considered in passing. Do not idly throw this position on someone who already has 10 other responsibilities just because he or she has a Twitter account. Someone with a firm grasp on how to plan social media activities to achieve business goals should be in charge of building online communities to ensure you do not waste your valuable time, energy, money and reputation on a trial-and-error approach.
By Alexandra Reid
