Social media: a challenge for companies

Social media is a big challenge for companies. Many are afraid of losing control and shitstorms - or they are not aware of the benefits they can draw from the social web. People like to just start – without goals, without strategy, without advice . Some B2C companies think they can avoid the power shift towards consumers by not becoming active on the social web themselves. And it is often said that none of this is relevant for B2B anyway. Anyway, it's all just a private gimmick with no relevance to business life.

They all have one thing in common: They need competent advice.

Separate social chaff from social wheat

Many call themselves social media experts or social media consultants today. You should look twice, especially with freelancers. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? A good social media consultant should always proceed strategically and first try to get to know your company and the individual framework conditions - in order to then define goals for the activities in the social web together with you.

Where do you want to go?

Social Selling: Can Social Media Sell?

These goals can have very different directions. If you have an online shop, it is usually about social selling or social commerce, i.e. sales support through social media . And of course that doesn't mean that you simply post all the products on Facebook and automatically import these posts to Twitter. You need a strategy, because direct selling is a major challenge on the social web and must never be clumsy.

Social recruiting: Employees evaluate employers

You may also want to recruit employees via the social web. Have you checked your ratings on the employer rating platform kununu? Applicants are doing this more and more often when choosing their future employer. They no longer rely on the same personal marketing blah-blah like “great team”, “top employer in Stuttgart” or “good opportunities for advancement”. They want authentic voices from other employees - and they usually get them. In the long run, no company can avoid social HR or social recruiting. Generation Y has long since arrived in professional life. The younger and more online-savvy your potential employees are, the more urgently you should address this topic and not shy away from advice. In any case, subscribe to the reviews of your company on kununu.

Enterprise 2.0 oder: Social Intranet

Is the most important resource in your company the knowledge of your employees? Should this know-how be better spread internally and should communication and cooperation be improved anyway? Then think about Enterprise 2.0 or a social intranet. This can range from a simple internal wiki to a complex social network and online collaboration tool. That depends on your goals and how useful these tools are for your business. Here, too, intensive advice helps to define the right goals and implement the right strategy, especially at the beginning – including the associated change management process.

relationship management

Whether internal or external, whether with customers or applicants - ultimately, social media is always about relationship management . People to people and brands to people relationships. And with it, listening. What is already being said about you? About your products, your services or you as an employer? Your image increasingly depends on your online reputation - and not just on your own marketing measures. So start listening and nurturing relationships, whether you want to call it Social CRM or not.