SOCIAL MEDIA: What It Can and Can’t Do

Social Media appears to have become the answer to all small business’ growth problems. If you need more business, work harder on your social media campaign; if you need more brand awareness, get it on social media. While I agree that social media has become an integral part of all business marketing there are other factors to be considered.

• Social Media does not produce overnight success. If you need something to happen
  “today”, social media alone will not produce anything “today.” Relationship building on social media, just as in real life person to person contact, takes time to develop and time to produce results. Social media has to be treated as a long term marketing investment with dividends to be paid out at a future date.
• Social Media cannot cure a bad product/service, or a bad organization. In fact, just the opposite can occur if your target market has a bad experience with you; as in all cases, bad news travels fast.
• Social Media is not free. You may be able to join several social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn at no cost, but creating an effective social media campaign is costly in the amount of time needed to achieve the desired results. Additional cost may be incurred as the marketing on social media has to be integrated across all your marketing efforts including print and paid advertising.

What social media can do (given the time and consistency required):

• Social media can build Brand Awareness.
• Social media can tell your story.
• Social media forces you to be more responsive to your customers and prospects
• Social media is a source of help for most everything you need.
• Social media evens the playing field. The loudest, biggest spenders don’t win anymore. The smartest most flexible listeners do.

There are hundreds of niche social networks, so it’s worth looking at what communities might exist around the needs your company serves.

BizQuack will be offering new opportunities in the area of social media. They will be in the education section, and you will be notified as they are posted.

Social Media replaces nothing, but compliments everything! Jay Baer