June 20, 2011
OPEN Forum Message
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A few months ago, I had the honor of presenting the keynote address at Louisiana Entrepreneurship Day, an event organized by the Louisiana Entrepreneur’s Organization and the Stephenson Institute for Entrepreneurship at Louisiana State University. As a communications manager who has spent the last couple of years building the FedEx social media presence, my message was simple: Marketing your brand using social media is something every entrepreneur can and should do, so long as you follow a few basic principles.
Despite our current size, FedEx always has been, and always will be, an entrepreneurial organization. Like entrepreneurs everywhere, we focus on individual customer needs and develop solutions to meet them. We must stay ahead of global trends to remain competitive—which is the foundation of any successful entrepreneurial strategy. This is especially true in the digital and social media space.
Shifts in public consumption and sharing of information have fundamentally changed buying habits. My team’s role is to stay ahead of the trends and meet our customers where they spend their time online—whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or YouTube—and ensure we stay relevant to their needs, which includes providing customer service.
Within every business—even a business of one—someone has to assess the organization’s digital relevance. That begins with fundamentally thinking around four basic principles:
1. Pay attention
Chances are your customers are talking about your industry—or even your business. Business success depends on knowing what is being said. There are many free tools (like Google Alerts, Social Mention and TweetDeck) that enable you to search keywords. Use them.
2. Get in the game
Decide what you want to accomplish and start small. If you are intimidated but interested in using social media, choose a single business objective and a single channel. As they say, you don’t need to boil the ocean.
Look at the big picture. Most successful businesses focus on ROI, and rightfully so. But don’t let the lack of direct-revenue measurement in social channels keep you from testing the waters. Sometimes the best way to drive sales is to simply grow awareness or build a community with existing customers. It’s difficult to measure in short-term ROI, but it can be well worth the indirect and long-term benefits of customer loyalty and brand awareness.
3. Define your success
Set clear expectations. A lot of people jump in, don’t experience immediate “success,” and leave. Perhaps their measurements for success weren’t well defined.
If you want to build a community of customers on Facebook, for example, start with a goal of connecting with 100 customers during a certain time period; you can always expand down the road. Measure the dialogue and engagement, but don’t expect orders to start jumping into your lap. Remember the difference between short-term versus long-term ROI.
4. Improve
It’s OK to make mistakes. Every company makes mistakes along the way. The successful companies learn from them and dramatically improve as a result. At FedEx, we’re constantly seeking ways to get better.
You can also look to other companies for inspiration. I really enjoy seeing the success of other large companies, but I’m even more inspired by small companies, with limited budgets, achieving tremendous success. We learn from them and you can, too.
FedEx on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter:
Ryan Furby is the communications manager of digital and social media strategies at FedEx.
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CathyPaper 11 months ago
Very nicely stated. I agree. How do we follow Ryan Furby on twitter? Can't track him down. Bummer.