Making the right moves with social media

[kemin]

The good thing about using public transportation, besides shrinking my carbon footprint of course, is that it allows me the time to read. Not just the fluff or lighter fun stuff but meaningful, insightful, informative business books.

So the latest is SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate by Joel Postman (New Riders/2009). As you can tell, there's nothing fun in that title at all, but if you're responsible for corporate communications, marketing or need to justify the hours at work you spend on Facebook, this book is the ticket.

You'll read about the reasons companies need to be involved: customer service/support, brand ambassadorship, building brand equity and reducing marketing costs. More importantly, it delves into how to "do" social media properly and gain from it. There are illustrative examples of how companies venturing into social media for the first time are making inroads. Online retailer Zappos has made it fun to use Twitter and benefits from this employee engagement with subtle promotion of products and in resolving customer support issues.

Basically social media and the online conversations taking place require corporate involvement because we need to be informed about those heaping praise, thrashing us, or commenting on our business so that we can respond, take action and make the right decisions.