Social Networks: The Clock is Ticking for Businesses

Let’s make something absolutely clear from the beginning. This is not a suggestion that businesses who are not involved with social networks should blindly rush in. As you will learn, the clock is ticking and it is important for businesses both local and global to get involved and make an impact through social networks.

With that said, it’s better to not get involved than to try social networks and do them incorrectly.  On to the story…

Social Networks Start Tightening Up Growth to Fight Spammers

The predictable cycle is starting to materialize. For this post, we’ll look at Twitter as the primary example.  Since its birth, Twitter has been the most “spammer friendly” social networking site (mostly because it’s not a true social network, but that’s not important).  They allowed multiple accounts, few limits or restrictions on what could be posted, and an ability to grow an account quickly. While these attributes contributed greatly to its growth, they also opened the doors wide open to spammers.

Once the site drew the attention of celebrities, politicians, and businesses around the world, it became necessary to slow down the growth of those accounts that started taking advantage of the “Twitter Wild West”. First, they limited the amount of people an account could follow in the beginning to 2000. Once that number was achieved, an account could only follow 110% of the number of followers it had.

Accounts still grew rapidly and follower “churn” (the technique off following a lot of users, waiting for a certain period of time, and then removing those who didn’t follow back) became more of an issue, so Twitter implemented a 1000-follow-per-day rule. This slowed account growth tremendously, but it was still possible to grow fast.

Recently, they dropped the number down to 500. Mission accomplished. The days of churn as a valid growth method are pretty much over. At the current rate, a manually managed account can grow by 200 followers a day if it’s done right (and doing it right is very time consuming).  It takes 2 months to get 10,000 followers now (a feat that used to take a few days).

In short, businesses and individuals need to be creative when building accounts. So many accounts are simply spam now that gaining 200 a day might only yield a few dozen quality friends. Of those friends, half of them may be gone or uninvolved in a month.

There are ways to build strong accounts without spamming or relying on slow churn. This is where proper social media strategy comes into play. While there are companies that will charge thousands to build a relatively worthless batch of social media profiles, they don’t take it to the next level of helping to build the accounts, train those who will be managing them, or helping to promote them with innovative ideas.

What Does This Mean for Businesses

The immense popularity of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace has generated a tremendous upspike in the number of companies who are offering social media marketing services.  You do not need a social media marketing service.

Let me repeat that.

You do not need a social media marketing service.

There are choices to be made and made soon. The clock is ticking. The longer that a company waits to start or improve their social media strategy, the harder it will become to truly get in the game.  Here is what companies need to do:

1. Decide whether to hire, outsource, or use DIY social media. Be careful of the cheap or free techniques such as using temporary interns.
2. Commit. Whatever you choose to do, stick to it and put the time, money, and/or effort into doing it right.
3. Read social news blogs, Twitter tip sites, and advice on how to use other social networks.

Once you’ve made your decision, hire a social media strategy firm (such as Hasai).  Promoting your company through social media is more than a marketing campaign. It’s more than having a presence. It’s about looking at what your company is doing, what your competitors are doing, and most importantly looking at what your customers are doing. Making your social media strategy fit with your market is the key to doing exceptional things in Web 2.0. Just look at Dell.

Regardless of the size of your company, chances are strong that you can make a difference with social media. It’s all about impact. Your company needs a heavy hitter on its side for the most impact.

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Read more about Social Media Strategy on this site.