Learning to speak like you?
That penny has finally dropped and businesses seem to be embracing social media – judging from the level of enquiries we have for consultancy and training and judging by the new social media agencies that are setting up it looks like that moment is here.
Social media is a huge opportunity to communicate, to interact, to make new connections and to build genuine rapport with customers, prospects and other people in business.
Have a peep at a lot of the adverts by some of the large companies and notice how they are all including their Facebook address prominently – why are they pushing this instead of their website?
They want to bring people to a place where they can interact with their brand, bring their unique personality to life and have the opportunity to build genuine “followers” instead of taking to them to their website.
Getting there ..
While this penny seems to have dropped many businesses while realising the importance of social media believe they do not have the skills to execute it properly. Often the solution to this dilemma is to outsource their social media activity to an agency, which is creating opportunities for all of us working in this space.
While this may seem like a solution it really isn’t – I’m probably shooting myself in both feet by saying this but it is our genuine belief that your voice should not be outsourced.
It’s really simple – no one will have your knowledge, your passion and your insights and this is what you need to fuel and maximise your social media activity.
Passing your voice to an agency, who will never understand your business the same way that you do is giving away the magic that brings social media to life. Not only will you miss the magic but you will also miss the valuable learnings that social media interactions will bring you about your business, your products, services, sector and your competition.
My only exception here might be during an interim period or during a busy campaign where you might require an extra pair of hands and eyes to support your own teams efforts.
Instead of paying someone to speak on your behalf (in a way that will never be as good as you) why not you or some member of your team spend the time and budget to learn how to use these social media platforms properly – once you know how, you will fly!.
You can never teach someone to speak with your voice – it’s impossible.
It’s your voice they want to hear ..
Greg Canty is a parter in Fuzion
Fuzion provide social media training and consultancy from our offices in Dublin and Cork
