One of the findings that surprised me in the Social Media Fitness Study was that large companies seem to be far more “socially fit” than small companies. I suspect the reason for my surprise is that I have worked with a handful of well-funded fast growing start-ups that totally get social and who squeeze every last drop of value out of it. One such company is TagMan, the global leader in tag management, whose Marketing Director, Nelleke Kloet offered up her input on the results of the study. Since TagMan is in the business of helping clients figure out how to optimize their digital media activities and they have data that shows the disproportionate power of social media to drive traffic and leads, it should come as no surprise that Nelleke is both a believer and a “fit” practitioner.
DN: Any thoughts on why large companies had higher “fitness” scores than small companies?
That surprises me as I think the “free” media has been explored in the past better by smaller companies. I guess with time, resources have increased and improved scores. Resources, in terms of money as well as people, resources which bigger companies have more of.
DN: Do you think social media can be even more powerful for small companies than big companies?
Yes, I think it can have better ROI for small companies and more accessible if you have limited budgets.
DN: What role does social media perform in TagMan’s overall business plan?
It’s one of the elements of the marketing mix. We ensure we know the exact role of each media and focus on that. For example, Facebook has a specific role for employees and to get to know the people behind the company. Each Linkedin group and profile has a specific role. For example, the company LinkedIn page is about our company and the people (great for comparison to competitors business) whereas the TagMan group is about news and discussions for people working with tags.
DN: What are your goals with social media?
We use it for thought leadership mostly but we have seen, for some campaigns, it has actually worked for lead generation too. It depends on the call to action.
DN: You were among the minority in which social media has permeated all aspects of your business. What is behind your commitment to social media?
We see the benefits of social media when we run TagMan attribution reports for our clients so we know what role it can play in the marketing mix. We also use our own real-time attribution reporting for our website to help us what role it plays in our business.
DN: Can you speak to the benefits of having all your employees be active in social media?
All our employees are brand embassadors so they should be able to speak about your brand in the appropriate way. If you have to restrict it it actually means you have not done enough ‘marketing’ on your own employees – which is ofetn the case in larger companies. The benefits are that you can tap into their networks so more reach as well as its more genuin and not scripted which makes it more believable for the audience.