SMBs still getting social media wrong

Discussions about the best ways to exploit social media have been going on for years. So it’s interesting that SMBs are still getting it wrong.

At least, that’s according to a new report from Gartner called ‘Social Media Best Practices for SMBs Can Make Success a Reality’, penned by analysts Susan Galberaith and Jenny Sussin.

The report’s authors take issue with how SMBs use social media. Instead of taking an integrated approach, what Gartner calls the ‘Nexus of Forces’ - social, mobile, cloud and business intelligence (BI), SMBs look at each of these forces with more of a ‘project’ mentality, the analysts say.

On top of this, SMBs are not investing in social media as much as they are the other three forces.

“Mobile, BI, analytics and cloud projects rank among the top initiatives for more than 25% of respondents in the 2014 SMB Gartner Research Circle Study evaluating the state of SMB IT,” the analysts write. “However, the same study revealed that only 8% of these same respondents ranked social computing as one of their top three initiatives for 2014.”

This lack of focus on social media is a problem for these companies; the analysts argue that SMBs are at higher risk than large enterprises of being disrupted by their innovative competitors that do make the most of social, mobile, cloud and BI.

Course correction

But it’s not all bad news. These smaller organisations are “more agile in trying new technologies”, and there are several steps they can take to get back on the right track.

1. Identify the objectives of your social media strategies

According to the analysts, most businesses look at social media as something that is “tactical and ad hoc”, rather than as a part of a holistic business strategy.

This tactical point of view leads organisations to “republishing press releases on Facebook or tweeting a link to a customer reference video”, actions which the analysts say don’t integrate social practices into the business.

Businesses should determine the business objectives of any social business strategy, they reckon. Examples of such objectives include increasing efficiency or revenue, or decreasing costs or PR risks.

“Your objectives will influence the decisions you make about your organisation’s social business strategy. Consider your organisation’s outlined values and any experience-related objectives, such as ‘creating exceptional customer experiences’ or ‘creating a culture of transparency’ that could drive your social business strategy,” they write.

2. Match your use cases to these objectives

Your use of specific social media tools should be appropriate to the business objectives you’ve outlined. The metrics you use to measure success should be similarly matched.

“The most consistent mistakes Gartner sees clients making in the area of social media are improperly matching use cases and social media tactics to business objectives, and not using metrics to measure the success of their initiatives,” the analysts write.

Many of the firm’s clients struggle to figure out exactly how to measure a social media strategy’s success.

“Most clients measure activity, and, although a large number of ‘likes’ on a Facebook page may seem like an indication of success, on its own, it doesn’t mean much to the business.”

An example of a correctly matched case: if your business objective was to increase campaign regos to build a sales lead database at lower costs, your use case would be running marketing campaigns. In practical terms this could involve running a promo or sweepstakes through Facebook with an email opt-in, and you’d judge the strategy’s success by cost per lead or opt-in.

3. Use your existing social resources when starting out

Finally, for those SMBs taking their first tentative steps in a social media initiative, the analysts recommend using existing applications that have social media capabilities embedded, like e-commerce, marketing or CRM applications.

This “offers a place to start that is often less risk averse and more cost effective”.

Pictured: Gartner analyst Susan Galberaith