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Social Media for Entrepreneurs: Tips from Zappos, Match.com, and Method Founders

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This Wall Street Journal video features an interview with Gary Kremen, founder of Match.com, Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method, and Nick Swinmum, founder of Zappos.com, where they shared some advice on using social media for small business (mainly on Facebook or Twitter). I agree on some of their suggestions but not the other.

Tips I Feel Useful
  • In-house social media staff is very important. Whoever manages a company’s social media activities must know the company, including the organizational culture, services and products offered, and the operational procedures. Otherwise, a company can repeat Chrysler’s mistake on Twitter.
  • Be consistent in feeding new content.
  • Carry on an on-going conversation on social media. Social media is more than just sales and marketing. Content creators also need to consider “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me?) and “IDNK” (I don’t know that) for the audience when posting updates and news.
  • Companies must have clear objectives when implementing social media strategies. Otherwise, social media can be very counterproductive for business.

Tips I Disagree
  • Will social media become less important if a company does not need to interact with consumers directly? I don’t think so. I believe that social media, if used appropriately, can be very effective in B2B, B2C, and C2C communications. Even if a company’ business model does not rely on B2C communications as much as the others do, they should still use social media, including Facebook Page and Twitter, to promote B2B and C2C communications. Additionally, recent research indicates that blogging can have a positive impact on a company’s performance in the stock market because companies often share positive information on their blogs.  
  • Is social media optional for senior executive members? It may work for Nick Swinmurn at Zappos.com, but I don’t think it will work for others. My question is: How can an executive make viable decisions on a company’s social media strategy if s/he does not even use the tools? Let’s use e-mail marketing as an example, if one does not even use e-mails, s/he may not know how to send or receive e-mails anyway. How can this person make good decisions on e-mail marketing?

Do you see my points? What are your thoughts on the advice provided by these three entrepreneurs?

 
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Comments

  1. JagreerApril 19, 2012 at 1:17 PM

    This topic is very appealing since social media is becoming so important in everyone’s daily lives now. Many companies have twitter and Facebook pages to communicate to their fans and customers and I think it is extremely effective when done properly. I agree with the points you feel are useful because it is important to keep the social media professional and consistent since it is a public representation of a company/business. I also agree with the last two bullets you mentioned. I think the only way social media can become less important to a company is if it is not managed and/or published correctly; even if a company doesn’t need to communicate to customers social media helps promote their brand name to other business and to the general public. I think it is interesting to see how many companies have begun using Facebook and twitter because these websites, to many college kids, are strictly for socializing with friends and peers; it’s cool to see how people are beginning to use these sites to their individual company’s advantage.
    Jamie Greer

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