How many of you feel that we’ve been misled as to the benefits of social networking sites. How many of you are finding that these tools do not live up to the hype.
Some myths about the magic that is social networking.
Social media sites are free. This is the most popular mantra spoken by those whose sole purpose is to promote something via social networking (usually themselves). The real cost, however, is time. If you can’t make something happen on a consistent basis then you look like you are slacking. Less activity implies less to say which implies less to pay attention to which translate into less interest. Not a good path for anyone to take. How do you get past it? With time. Many businesses are finding that they need full time people to keep this up to speed all the time. People are not free. Time is not free. Social media then is not free.
Social media means new customers. Twitter has millions of users, but apparently only four of them actually understand what it does and spend much time updating their tweets. Are these the people who will buy the products your company manufacturers?
You have to be on all the major social media sites. Because time is so valuable it is best to pick one venue that is the place where your business will benefit the most then work it hard. Don’t try to be all things to all people on all social media sites. In other words, if your market isn’t on Twitter then, you shouldn’t be either.
Social networking sites are for marketing. Since most people hate to be ‘sold’ on social networking venues then it seems almost contradictory to be really marketing on them. Most efforts to ‘sell’ or even heavily promote on Twitter and Facebook come off as desperate. Best use is actually customer service. Social media is a place to connect and learn about and from customers.
Social networking is the future. MySpace traffic is in decline. GeoCities has closed down and the Twitter retention rate numbers as evidence that the media is more enamored with this than the real world is.
So should a business or a brand use social media sites for business? Maybe. Then again, maybe other customer service approaches make more sense. Remember newsletters, phone calls and support, seminars, partnering, and the like? Just because the media have determined that social networking is “in” doesn’t mean your customers are there.
Is it better to consider where people of value actually go when deciding how to use the concept of social networking?
Tags: Social Networking
