By Elaine Ball
The survey industry is transforming yet again with the hype about drones or should I say UAVs. Michael Maes of @Trimble Survey (a survey company) commented, “drones are a dirty word”. He prefers the term UAS (unmanned aerial system).
So, what’s the connection with “I am a survey company, why do I need Facebook?” and Michael? The connection is Twitter, a social media platform. @POBMag tweeted about it.
Survey companies using social media to be in front of the competition
Is the survey industry paying attention to social media? I used Facebook in the title as I get some very funny looks when I mention it to survey companies and I wanted you to be intrigued.
What survey companies are saying
I had a great debate this morning with Abi Pears of @Opticalsurvey. I am interested to find out about ‘different’ social media platforms, survey companies are using and trying out. One of Optical-Survey’s (a survey company based in UK) unique selling points is ‘personality’ and Facebook and Twitter are used to promote this. Optical survey use Facebook as a photo gallery to show off what they are doing, interacting with their customers on a PERSONAL level.
@terralinksgroup (a survey company in Australia) is also using the platform to reach out to their customers posting articles, pictures and what their teams are doing. It may not get you sales but it is EXPOSING you as a company in the market. You are seen to be doing things! You are also showing off your personality!
@Opticalsurvey noted that twitter is better but not enough people are using it in the survey community. Therefore missing out on great things. The marketing industry is changing rapidly. We are seeing this with the change in the Internet. The survey community is also changing. Competition is plenty and survey marketers will need the support of training, marketing peers, consultants and mentors in order to stay ahead of the ever-changing social media platforms, if they are to be the best in their field.
Survey marketers will need to get savvy and jump onto the fast pace of change, in order to keep up.
A survey company must prove social media works
The other major issue for survey marketers is ‘proving’ to the boss that social media is worth investing in! Therefore marketers must monitor it!
For example:
- How many clicks, re-tweets, comments or click throughs are happening?
- Where are they coming from?
- How many of these clicks are turned into leads?
- How many are turned into sales?
If survey marketers wish to receive a bigger budget they will need to prove to themselves that this medium works. The majority of social media is free but it’s the time taken to invest in it and invest in it well.
Thoughts and comments welcome!