Bandwidth & Relevancy – 2 Factors that Prevent Companies from Using Social Technologies

Posted by kboon on March 1, 2010 under Business Building Strategies | Comments are off for this article

Companies both large and small, are grapling with how to use social technologies within their business. Some have made the mistake of jumping off the cliff too early, only to realize there are no sales and there are rocks at the bottom. For this reason, some companies stay away like the plague, frustrated by this mysterious technology which seems to threaten their business.

Yet there are a growing number of companies (large and small) using social technologies to build their brand, their business reputation and increase sales.

The two main challenges for any business are bandwidth and relevancy. Most business owners will say, our employees are already maxed to the limit. We don’t have time, or the bandwidth to support a blog or Twitter. The other challenge is relevancy. Do these technologies really help my business or are they time wasters?

Let’s talk about each of these challenges and how to work through them.

Bandwidth

Companies exist in fast paced, highly competitive marketplace. Most employees seem to work harder than ever, and from layoffs and cutbacks they have seen their workloads increase. If you’re a manager, executive or employee, how do you incorporate a blog, Twitter or Linkedin if you are so busy handling the other demands of your job?

Relevancy

The other question is relevancy. How is Twitter really going to help my business? Laying it out for employees without a policy or strategy can be disasterous. For small businesses you can waste a lot of time (time taken away from earning money) if not thought out effectively.

Here are 4 Tips for Getting through the Bandwidth and Relevancy Issues

Learning & Research – Read up on those who are using social tools and getting results. Better yet look for examples in your industry. Be careful of not getting caught up in the hype, but look for clear examples of people who are getting results. If you can, make connections and ask lots of questions.  What strategies do they use?  How do they manage their time? What can you learn?  Here is an example of a chiropractor, Dr. Patrick MacNamara, using social tools to build his business.  I’ll guarantee you will find someone or some company in your industry using these tools.

Develop a Listening Strategy First – Although this is part of research I feel it’s an important point on its own.  Chris Brogan, who consults for many fortune 500 companies says, developing a listening strategy first.  He says it better than I can in these two posts.  (Starting a Social Media Strategy & Five Tools I Use for Listening)

Develop a Business Strategy – For larger companies, developing a good corporate policy is important.  Defining your goals for social media are critical.  For small businesses it’s about defining your goals and being smart with your time. Plan your day and give your self a few hours per day (or per week) to learn some of the social tools.

Play Smart – Through your research and testing you can start to make decisions where to play in the social space.  With thousands of social networks, you can’t be everywhere at once. Spend some time, find out where your customers are and go to them. Focus on one or two platforms, especially if your time is limited.  Later you can find ways to automate or be in multiple places at once.

I will talk about those tools in a future post.