The other day, I was asked by a business owner to make a case for why he should get involved in social media. Here is my response.
1. Search. Social media has bearing on search. Every major search engine uses what’s known as blended search. That means search engines don’t just pull from traditional websites, but from various types of media – YouTube, Flickr, blogs, social networks and the like. If you don’t have a presence in those places, you will have less ubiquity.
2. Customers. Whether you use social media or not, it’s a safe bet your customers do. They are talking about you, your products and services on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and others. If they are not doing it now, they soon will.
3. Competitors. If you’re competition isn’t using social media, at some point they will. Why find yourself drowning in a red ocean when you can get ahead of the competition and gain first-mover advantage.
4. Personalized marketing. Social media is a return to what Toby Bloomberg once referred to as a “corner grocer” relationship where you know your customers by face and name, rather than just a digit on a spreadsheet. Social media is not one large city, but a connected collective of many small communities.
5. Facebook. The social network is the 500 600 million pound gorilla in the room. It seems like everyone is on it and its growth continues unabated.
There are many more reasons I could have given, but I felt those five represented a strong enough argument to make my point. What other reasons can you think of that could be used to make an even stronger case for social media?
Great list Paul. Most important in my selling point to businesses is #2. Whether or not a business owner believes they should be involved in social media, their customers do–they are talking, doing, living social and that's reason enough for most businesses to, at minimum, pay attention to it. If not, their competitors will
Thanks Maria. It reminds of me of my old radio days. Often, when trying to sell a business owner on using our station, I would get push back because he/she didn't care for the style of music or programming. I would have to remind him that the point was, the customer did like it and, if he wanted to reach that customer, our station was the place to do it. The same principle holds true for social media.
From small mom and pop shops to big brands, all businesses that want to compete moving forward should be not only participating in social media but excited about where it can take them. And I think you are right Paul, Facebook should be the minimum businesses are involved in. Facebook allows everyone to be part of a conversation and, with or without you, the conversation is taking place.
There are social media shops that do incredible things on Facebook with all the data available. LoudDoor.com leads the way on Facebook with the amount of data and analytics they can compile about not only your fans but your true customers. And once they help you identify the demographic of your most valuable fans, they have the platform to help brands acquire more of the targeted demographic. This data driven approach is the way to win on Facebook. You have other shops that make managing and participating in the FB conversation a simple task. Buddy Media and Involver may not be the answer for real data and analytics but there tools can make managing and moderating a page a simple task.
At this point it is almost planning to fail if you are not actively involved in the conversation that occurs on Facebook everyday.