Tweet me the money

So many businesses just don’t know what to do with social media. At BRW businesses spruik to us all the time about their Twitter and Facebook strategies but when you ask the fatal question – “Is the approach converting into sales? – the conversation soon dries up. The social web, we’re told, is about customer interaction, employee engagement and branding, with the underlying implication that these lofty goals are sullied by focusing purely on filthy lucre. It’s as though the social web has cast a spell on normally rational business people who should know that all work activities – no matter how tangential – fundamentally should all relate to the bottom line.

Too many businesses have got into the social web because they feel that they have to, without making a strict cost-benefit analysis. For them, the social web is all part of the “me too-ism” of the internet; they participate because their rivals or clients are on the social web, although secretly they are not quite sure what any of them are supposed to be doing there.

At its core, for business, the social web is a distribution channel – and more importantly, it’s a free channel. That’s why marketing departments love it and tell their chief executive to start blogging. A marketing team’s limited budget used to get blown out by advertising costs and now there’s a free tool that enables companies to create rich content, to give their brand character and to build loyalty – what’s not to love about that?

However, businesses still have to figure out how to make the social web relate to the bottom line. To do that we have to understand how to relate coverage on the social web to a defined business outcome.

Take Sydney radio personality Kyle Sandilands, for example. Last week he roused the wrath of the twitterati with his unpleasant on-air comments about a female journalist. In response, advertisers pulled their advertising from the show. So, a direct effect on the station’s business and a demonstration of the power of Twitter. But Sandilands has been here before – 12 months can’t go by without him publicly offending someone – and yet his program remains the top-rated breakfast show and advertisers that have left in protest come back. The lesson is that for advertisers the number of people actually listening to the show is more important than the number of people tweeting about it. We can take the same lesson from the poor feedback Qantas got on Twitter last week over its attempt to get people to share their most luxurious experiences.

Where did Qantas go wrong? Click here for more coverage.

The public reacted poorly, in light of recent events, to an attempt to equate the airline with a luxury experience, but again we can’t draw a direct correlation between Twitter action and the business result.

Although social media experts disagree.

In last week’s issue we looked back on 30 years of BRW and stressed how entrepreneurship was at the heart of the magazine. With that in mind we’re excited to kick off our annual national search for The Entrepreneur of the Year 2012. This is someone who has demonstrated real innovation and changed the marketplace in which they operate. For full details and to nominate, go to www.brw.com.au/entrepreneur. The winner will be recognised on the cover of BRW and join an elite group of entrepreneurs.

Also in this issue we are pleased to launch the search for the 50 Best Places to Work. If you think your organisation is head and shoulders above the rest as a workplace, nominate it! Go to www.greatplacetowork.com.au.

BRW

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