Lucy's View: Social Media

Studio 'Research'

We hear about it everywhere, businesses should be making more effort on social media, in order to connect to their customers, and it's true, they should. We like to use our social media channels in order to let our network know about company updates, share things that we find interesting, and to shine a light into studio life.

Nowadays there are so many websites offering tips, e-books, white papers, you name it, all about how to run your social media channels, how to strategise, how to automate, create and curate. And a lot of it is contradictory.  I subscribe to tens of social media experts and 'gurus', and yes I find a lot of the advice useful, but some of it is far too confusing! Especially if you're just starting to expand your company's social media efforts.

To me, the idea of social media, is to be just that, social. While automation is great for regular features, and days out of the office, surely the point is that your presence on social media is to interact with your network. Ask questions, discuss the answers, post that quick snap of the 'research' going on in the studio (see picture). This enables you let people in to who you are as a company, and as individuals, and share experiences. Sharing is such an important part of social media. Don't be scared to share articles and pictures by others, they might do the same for you!

Of all the guides, tips and tricks I have read and picked up through developing my role in social media, I go back to my dissertation for the most valuable and simple advice. A pair of academics (Kaplan and Haenlein) broke the term social media into it's two components, quite simply 'social' and 'media', and offered five guidelines for each. As many of the gurus I follow suggest that you 'put your own spin' on curated content, I have decided to add my comments on the matter.

Social Media Guidelines from UbDStudio

We'd love to hear your feedback! Do you have any social media golden rules you abide by? Tweet us @ubd_studio.