Comparing Social Media Tools

©2010 Golden Practices, Inc. [email protected]

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Comparing Social Media Tools

By Michelle Golden

This document includes adapted excerpts from Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms:

The Guide to Establishing Credibility and Accelerating Relationships ©2010 John Wiley & Sons

Not for duplication.


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COMPARING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

At present, there are four new media tools that are most suitable for professionals and their firms: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. The pace of innovation is rapid so these are unlikely to be the most popular and appropriate tools for your business use in a few years. New tools continuously emerge and some will build upon or replace these tools. Therefore, as you read, and later as you formulate your strategy, it’s important to consider the objectives each tool helps you accomplish (through its features) rather than focusing on a tool’s current popularity alone.

Popularity is certainly a legitimate consideration, however, because of the need to assure that you are in the correct space to find and interact with the people you seek, and because of the value of critical mass, for instance, a tool like LinkedIn or Facebook is exponentially more valuable because of the sheer number of people on it.

Recognizing that new tools will continually emerge reinforces the importance of clarity in your marketing objectives—your purpose—behind adopting any specific tool.

Unless you have the tremendous time and resources it takes to establish a strong presence everywhere at once, you’ll want to decide which new media to explore and, among those, what to bite off first. These tables are subjective, based on my experience with the way CPAs and lawyers would and do use the tools. People in other professions may experience greater or lesser usefulness or concerns with the tools assessed in the tables on the following page.


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Compare Usefulness (based on moderate to excellent use of the tool)

Objectives or Benefits (C = credibility oriented, N = networking oriented)

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Blogs

Obtain answers to questions (C)

Demonstrate your expertise, establish credibility (C)

Increase your knowledge (C)

Distribute content (C)

Sustain customer loyalty when things go wrong (C)

Communicate without distributing content (firm developed or otherwise) (N)

Promote others (building goodwill) (N)

Conducive to deepening relationships and building rapport (N)

Connect others together (facilitate mutually beneficial introductions) (N)

Regularly alerted to opportunities for interaction (reasons to reach out as others update) (N)

Identify resources (N)

Maintain contact and reconnect (N)

Meet new people (N)

Promote events and firm-‐hosted activities (C/N)

Recruiting (via a firm vs. individual presence) (C/N)

Concerns (more stars = greater concern)

Concerns LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Blogs Business/personal crossover among contacts N/A N/A

Time investment to be effective

Noticeable if absent

Process needs/considerations for best execution (internal, firm level)

These objectives, benefits, and concerns can also be considered when you need to evaluate new tools as they emerge. After weighing these factors, you can determine if migration from a current tool to a new one is best.

Comparing Social Media Tools

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