4HE 4RUTH !

BOUT 3OCIAL -EDIA s Media & Marketing

The Truth About

Social Media
A game-changer for marketing companies and the
business case behind social media
BY DEREK SANKEY

T
hey have literally become the latest buzzwords in
business: Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, foursquare,
LinkedIn – there is little doubt social media has cre-
ated a lot of hype lately. But what is the value to the average
business? Why should a company blindly embrace social
media? Can you actually make money using it?
As with any rapidly emerging and evolving technology,
the answer is ambiguous. Still, the trend has clear implica-
tions for public relations, media and marketing companies
as well as the clients they serve.
“It’s not like you get on (social media) and you’re going to
make money right away,” explains Christi Millar, an account
supervisor with Weber Shandwick in Calgary who’s on the
firm’s Canadian digital communications team. “I can’t really
say the average business is going to make money using
social media.”
One survey found only 22 per cent of companies that
used social media as part of their marketing strategy actu-
ally made money from their initiatives last year, while 53
per cent broke even and 19 per cent lost money.
But that’s shortsighted, says Millar. “In Canada, we’re just
really starting to drive it. We’re not saying you have to get
on social media because it’s the new thing. We always take
the full step back and look at their overall communication

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 4HE 4RUTH !BOUT 3OCIAL -EDIA s Media & Marketing

objectives and then try to pick where “People always joke

their customers are.”
By now, most people know what that they don’t want
social media is, even if they don’t
religiously check into their Facebook to get a tweet about
or Twitter accounts – if they even
have them. These technologies allow what you had for
users to create communities and
interact with each other regularly breakfast, but
with updates, blog posts and various
methods of two-way communication.
what they’re not considering is
Therein lies the value, according to the amount of brand exposure you can
proponents of social media.
“People always joke that they don’t create with social media.”
want to get a tweet about what you
had for breakfast, but what they’re ~ Fiona Friesen, founder of Glue Solutions
not considering is the amount of
brand exposure you can create with
social media,” says Fiona Friesen,
founder of Glue Solutions, a Calgary-
based marketing company that offers
social media training and related
strategic and support services.
Business owners shouldn’t take the
approach that social media is going
to instantly pay off. The reason com-
panies are beginning to embrace
social media as part of their over-
all marketing and communications
strategies is to reach out to poten-
tial customers wherever they are:
to create brand awareness, to build
communities related to their prod-
uct or service, to increase loyalty, to
establish credibility or expertise, and
to leverage this new two-way inter-
action with customers.
“It’s just another platform we can
engage on behalf of our clients or
advise our clients on how they can
engage their customers,” says Millar.
There is no magic formula that
says if you invest ‘x’ number of dol-
lars in social media, then the return
will be ‘y.’
“Social media isn’t for everybody,”
says John Sacke, with public rela-
tions firm Sacke and Associates Inc.
“Results don’t happen overnight.”
Each company has to evaluate what
– if any – presence they should have
on social media channels. The poten-
tial, says Sacke, is to expand your
marketing plan more broadly to reach
a larger potential target audience. Fiona Friesen, founder of Glue Solutions, is part of a growing wave of media and marketing companies keeping up
with the social media craze . Photo courtesy of Glue Solutions.

BUSINESS IN CALGARY -!9  s 


“Each company has to decide based on their own time,
resources, skill set and what they’re naturally inclined to
do,” says Friesen.
Millar recalls one example where somebody tweeted that
they needed a plumber. Within a few minutes, a plumber
tweeted back with his website and credentials and the prob-
lem was solved.
More recently, she ate dinner at the new Charcut Roast
House and tweeted what she thought about the restaurant
and dinner. Her tweet was re-tweeted several times and
word spread.
Even mom-and-pop retail outlets are getting in on the
game. Using foursquare – a location-based virtual game
where participants check in several times a week and who-
ever checks in the most times becomes “mayor” of that area
– one coffee shop offered the mayor free coffee or a free
appetizer, recalls Millar.
“It encourages customer loyalty because there’s a game
factor, which makes it fun,” she says.
Lorraine McLachlan, president and CEO of the Canadian
Franchise Association, says the social media trend also holds
potential for franchisees.
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4HE 4RUTH !BOUT 3OCIAL -EDIA s Media & Marketing
Whether using a
third party or doing it
yourself, any business
should first set up a
listening station – listen
to what people are saying,
monitor what competi-
tors are doing, and identify
communities and audiences
related to your product.
“One of the advantages for franchisees is that the franchi-
sor is spending the time trying to figure out social media for
that business and the franchisee gets to continue running
their business,” says McLachlan.
But there’s still confusion and no standard method of
approaching social media in the franchising world. Some
franchisors restrict how much involvement their franchisees
can have on social media, while others encourage local par-
ticipation. “At this point, there isn’t consistency,” she says.
Regardless, any company needs to be educated about how
social media works and why it could matter to them – either
now or in the future.
“You need to understand it because it is becoming so
popular … across every age demographic,” says McLachlan.
“At the heart of it, what really makes it different is that it is
dynamic and it is two-way.”
It’s more about whether a company has the resources to con-
tinue on with social media initiatives internally, use the services
of a PR or marketing firm to manage it for them or simply not
pursue any type of social media strategy.
One thing is clear: It has added another essential layer for
PR firms and marketing companies.
 4HE 4RUTH !BOUT 3OCIAL -EDIA s Media & Marketing

“If the PR companies and the marketing

companies don’t embrace it, they can expect
to be out of business tomorrow,” says Fri-
FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
esen. “It’s evolved since yesterday.” s 3OCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION AMONG COMPANIES WITH FEWER THAN 
Whether using a third party or doing it
yourself, any business should first set up
a listening station – listen to what peo-
ple are saying, monitor what competitors
are doing, and identify communities and
EMPLOYEES DOUBLED TO  PER CENT FROM  PER CENT LAST YEAR
ACCORDING TO A REPORT IN THE 7ALL 3TREET *OURNAL BASED ON A
SURVEY FROM THE 5NIVERSITY OF -ARYLAND AND .ETWORK 3OLU-
tions LLC.
audiences related to your product.
Then you can begin to participate once
you have a solid understanding of the tech-
nology and your target audience. After that,
it all comes down to consistency in commu-
nicating and managing the process.
“We call that managing the beast,” says
Friesen. “First you listen, second you par-
ticipate and third you manage.”
As for making money using social
media, it depends on a lot of variables
and how you use it. “Because this is so
new for so many people, everyone is try-
ing to figure it out for their own industry
and for their own business right now,”
says Friesen. BiC
s /UT OF  SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SURVEYED  PER CENT MADE A
profit last year from promoting their firms using social media, while
 PER CENT BROKE EVEN .INETEEN PER CENT LOST MONEY DUE TO SOCIAL
media initiatives.
s ! SURVEY FROM MARKETING TECHNOLOGY lRM 5NICA FOUND  PER CENT
of global marketers plan on using social media this year.
s .IELSENS  3OCIAL -EDIA 2EPORT FOUND NEARLY TWO IN lVE PEOPLE
are interacting with companies via social networking sites.
s /FlCE4EAM AND THE )NTERNATIONAL !SSOCIATION OF !DMINISTRATIVE
Professionals found 44 per cent of support staff use social media for
professional reasons, but only 22 per cent promote their company’s
products or services with these tools.
BUSINESS IN CALGARY -!9  s