Posted by: Sean Cadigan

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are officially over and post-Olympic buzz has waned. One thing is for certain, they have been the most shared games ever. Tweets, Facebook updates, Buzz conversations & even online on demand video were all a part of the broadcast of events.

The social media community surrounding this event was huge and communication channels were endless. So what can businesses take away from this with respect to the power of social media? It can be summed up with one word – opportunity.

Opportunity is the solid foundation upon which all marketing, regardless of communication channel, is based. Marketers use opportunity to reach consumers with their message. Traditionally this opportunity is provided by third-party broadcasters where the message is broadcasted one way. However, the advent of Social Media allows for broadcasting that is multidimensional. At last, we do not need to speak at our customers, but we can speak with them. If you are not ready to start that conversation, you can just sit, listen and gather intel.

The problem with social media is that you are not guaranteed to reach a certain market segment such as the possible 40% of 20-35 year old males as with certain TV shows or other traditional media broadcasts. This is where the opportunity and the strategy you need to draw your customers to you comes into play. The Olympics were a lesson on how you can use an opportunity to gather customers that you can interact with. Molson did a great job of doing this with The Gear Up for Gold Campaign on Facebook.

Molson was able to rally around a group that had already been brought together via the Olympics, and with a smartly designed Facebook app, they drew out ‘their’ fans.

Tim Horton’s also benefitted from the Olympics and the celebration of Canadian pride as their Facebook Fan page pushed over 500,000 members. So, what does this mean for the average business? Well, it starts with recognizing and creating your own opportunity. Opportunity can be anything that will draw critical mass to your social media channels. However, there needs to be a plan in place, because once the opportunity ends (as the Olympics did) you need to know how to keep your fans, followers, etc. in a conversation. Without continued conversation your fans will leave, as was seen with Molson’s Gear Up for Gold campaign. During the Olympics they had over 100,000 fans and now they have 64,000 fans. People move quickly in the world of social media, so you have to maintain consistent and pertinent conversation with them.

Have you discovered your opportunity?

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