Let us assume, however, that after reading Adam Ścibior's article entitled "Facebook? Consider it!" published in the October edition of the Press magazine and on Bankier.pl some of the companies reconsidered their business policies and decided to take the first conscious step on the social networking planet. There was a clear purpose to this expedition and everything seemed under control. But on opening the hatch, a reality unfolded that did not seem so rosy any more. The mission's crew resources appeared insufficient too. What's next?

 

A company's promotional activity cannot depend on mere leaving behind random traces and on hoping that a buzz will be created around them that will make them as prominent as Aldrin's footprint left on the Moon. Such activities must be carefully preprogrammed to reach present and potential users: they must be tailored to recipients' specific needs. The brand must be present where its users hang around, and brand users wander about freely on Facebook, Twitter or Blip. They go there not to use any particular services but for entirely different reasons. Brands can benefit by penetrating this world of fun, entertainment, interaction and community building.

 

How large is the potential of this new group of media that the industry has already named "super media"? It's enough to say that the number of people using Facebook alone is estimated at 600 million. Polish users of Facebook are approaching 8 million. Companies targeted at mass clients cannot afford ignoring such a broad channel of communication. Social media bring new opportunities to contacting users many of whom can no longer function efficiently without the Internet.

 

How to listen and understand?

New opportunities are opening up before enterprises thanks to the breakthrough solutions that enable monitoring social media. We can in fact learn what consumers say about particular companies in their private relations with other users. This kind of communication constitutes the source of the most reliable messages – a few years ago hardly anybody dreamed of learning such contents. Once we learn what these messages are, we can nearly perfectly adjust our offerings to our clients' needs. What comes into life is the genuine dialogue instead of mere marketing monologues swapped between service providers and service recipients or between producers and consumers.

Monitoring a brand in the social networking space enables a genuine dialogue with users practically in real time. It makes it possible for us to keep communication in hand, which is significant as it helps control potential critical situations. Most notably, such activities enrich the process of brand development; they are also a very effective method of brand promotion.

It happens that the effects of companies' involvement in social media include not only a change introduced to the communication channels but also an adjustment to the functioning of customer service, IT department and, in extreme situations, a modification of the whole business strategy. On a number of occasions, it turns out that we have found a common language with a group that was difficult to reach before or that we have reached a niche of consumers who were not included in previous sales assumptions. 

 

A repository of knowledge

The value of information obtained in the process of social media monitoring cannot be overestimated. We can continuously follow the effects of the implemented brand strategy and respond promptly to the contingent need for modifications. Thanks to monitoring social media, we can understand our consumers better and we can build successful relations with fans and, consequently, develop new products or services. Social networking sites can be used for enhancing marketing and PR activities. They help us also analyze the moves of our rivals.

Social networking portals are places where censorship and self-censorship filters are much less efficient so emotions and opinions expressed there are much more direct and genuine. This way we can easily learn the truth about how our brand is perceived.

PRESS-SERVICE Media Monitoring used Facebook, Twitter and Blip to conduct media-image research for five banks showing the strongest media presence in Poland. The results were compared to the results obtained from researching "conventional", traditional media. One of the most significant conclusions coming from that analysis was the fact that the materials gathered from social media much more frequently carried a heavy emotional load. 

 

 

The percentage of publications and posts - by context – on the subject of Poland's five banks with the strongest presence in the media. A comparison of conventional and social media. (9-21 September 2010)

   

While the percentage of negative materials oscillated around 1 per cent and the percentage of positive materials was about 10 per cent in conventional media, the proportions in the social media were found to be, respectively, 20 and 22 per cent.

 

The research showed also that the main subjects of the messages encompassed not only the banks' advertising activities but also competitions, special offers, products already in use or newly offered. A large number of negative materials were generated by such popular subjects as mergers and takeovers, complaints and customer service.