Social media works best when it provides potential customers with something they’ve never seen before or the opportunity to jump into a conversation they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have.

The weakest social media campaigns are purely sales-oriented, every blog written and tweet published has a single aim – advertising. That generally means their content is very one-note, can be repetitive and has a clear agenda which puts off many readers.

That’s not to say social media should obscure your business’ involvement entirely; just that it should explore different avenues by which to raise awareness. For blogs – is there an industry issue or debate you want to become involved with? A key business question you’d like to discuss or some information on a key area you’d like to share? Addressing these sorts of topics via blogs not only positions you as a business of intelligence and free thought, but also encourages engagement with your brand through debate and conversation.

If you are more interested in social networking, then the word constraints obviously come into play. However, there are still plenty of characters to ask a question and open a debate, or, just as importantly, respond to someone else’s work. Conversation is a two-way corridor and the more you interact with others, the more you’ll find come back to you!

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NSDesign was delighted to hear the news that BBC 6 Music is to be saved, and even more excited to hear that the BBC Trust’s reprieve is largely thanks to the power of social media.

Since the BBC announced the closure of BBC 6 Music, its home for new and upcoming bands, in March the public outcry has been immense with celebrities and citizens going online to offer their support for the station, seen as one of the few bastions of independent music in the UK.

An internet campaign using various social media sites sprang up almost instantly. This was not a coordinated effort, but started by different individuals who wanted to show their support for the station and encourage others to do the same. The Facebook campaign gathered 180,000 followers, while Twitter’s #save6music hashtag appeared to be constantly trending as several million tweets featured it.

These campaigns led supporters to online petition sites, which formalised the support and created documents that could then be handed to the BBC trust, creating a definite record of the station’s popularity amongst the public. When these petitions closed in May, they held nearly 100,000 signatures between them.

Added to this was the inundation of 50,000 online responses and 25,000 emails the BBC Trust received in support, as opposed to 250 snail mail letters, and you can truly begin to appreciate just how much difference the internet made in this highly successful internet and social media campaign.

The perfect case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media marketing!

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A lot of social media tutorials focus on how to use the various tools these sites provide to open a dialogue and engage with consumers. While this is absolutely correct, the role of social media sites in providing cost-effective, and, some might say more traditional advertising methods is often overlooked.

Earlier this year, a report by Nielsen and Facebook found conclusive evidence that social media advertising led to a dramatic increase in advert recall, brand awareness, and purchase intent. This is not only down to the wording and placement of the advert, but also the effect of ‘personal recommendations’ as trusted friends become fans of the product.

The sample of 800,000 illustrated that the best social advertising campaigns followed a two-pronged approach that combined paid media (pay-per-click and banner adverts) and earned media (advert viewers driving their friends to become fans). This approach combines the best of traditional advertising while utilising all the benefits that social media has to offer to create an advertising campaign which is immediate, personalised and can have a long life, even once the initial adverts have stopped running.

This is a highly cost-effective way to drive business, as using pay-per-click adverts means that a company only pays to receive traffic with a confirmed interest in a product. Add to this the snowball effect of social media, whereby each paid for advert has the potential to enlist hundreds of ‘fans’ all spreading your brand awareness for free and the fiscal benefits become remarkably clear.

Combining social media advertising with a strong campaign can effectively push a company forward to quickly reach an entire new audience.

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