But nobody told you what. Social media is still a brand new arena for many companies. Some are just figuring out that having a Facebook account and maybe even a Twitter account is a good thing. And if these tools are new to you, trying to get a grasp on what more there is to do with social media can be an overwhelming task. Have no fear though. Here are four different things you can do.
1) Public Relations: Social media is a great tool for communicating with the general public. Your Facebook page and your Twitter account let you have one to one conversations with people about your brand and products. Consumers - people - have fun reading postings, liking posts, and getting to learn more about who you are as a brand. And, anyone can quickly and easily jump on this wagon. This is the most popular use for social media.
2) Customer Relationship Management: Companies that are a little more savvy can build on their PR initiatives with this component. Tools like Facebook and Twitter can be used not just for general communications, but to respond to consumer questions and solve consumer problems. It's easy enough for people to send a Facebook message or Tweet to you asking specific questions. If you're ready to respond to them, with speed and friendliness, then this could be right for you. Companies like Dell and Comcast have Twitter accounts set up just for this and people take full advantage of them.
3) Social Media Monitoring: This use of social media takes a step away from the individual consumer to look at the wider space of the internet. Monitoring is a way for a brand to stay on top of who is saying what about your brand. The goal isn't necessarily to communicate with individual people, but rather to have an ear open to anyone speaking about your brand, to watch when and why the volume of conversations increases and decreases, to see what reactions are when good or bad things happen around your brand.
4) Social Media Research: For those of you wishing to expand your survey or focus group research beyond the asking and into the listening, this is the option for you. Social media research uses all of the same scientific principles as traditional research but focuses on social media as the data source rather surveys or focus groups as the source of data. Research objectives, sampling, weighting, standardized variables, norms, generalizability, and validity are the words of the day here.
In the end, you must decide on your objective. Do you want a communication channel for your consumers? Do you want to actively seek questions and solve problems? Do you want to listen to the ebb and flow of the internet? Do you have specific research problems you need to solve? You may not have the time or the budget to delve into every area but one of them probably meets a need you're currently trying to fill.
Answer that question, and the next step is easy. Well, maybe not easy, but at least you've chosen a fork in the road.