I was working on how to use Social Media with a new client the other day – let’s call them Company A.  Company A works with Medium to Large businesses by supplying them with resources on an as needed basis. Company A has 80 associates who they can call upon at any time.

As usual, I started by finding out what marketing is currently done by Company A. The answer – we have a website but not much else – was quite surprising. All their clients were obtained through personal referrals or relationships that they had developed.

They decided to use Social Media for two reasons:
1. They needed to have their associates, employees and company appear in a professional light should any of their prospective clients research them on the internet. The easiest way to do this was to make sure that all LinkedIn profiles were professional and branded. I recommended Company A  delete their Twitter profile (of 2 tweets) and empty Facebook page as these would have a detrimental effect on the brand.

2. They wanted to use Social Media as a way of communicating with their employees and associates. By creating a discussion in a private LinkedIn group, the responsibility was on their associates and employees to pick up the discussion rather than having to send an email to multiple people. A free, easy to manage, solution – once everybody had learnt to use LinkedIn!