As is the case with all new technologies there are promises that are…overstated.
I think this happened and is still happening with social media.
There has been an intrigue with social media over the last five or so years. Some businesses have jumped right in with the owners and managers getting on board and leading the way for their employees. These companies have likely found some success with social media and I would even guess that maybe their customer profile changed a little bit, but that’s another topic for another post.
Other companies have been sitting more on the sideline with social media. These companies are kind of still waiting to see if there is any profit to be had in the social media game. I don’t think this is a bad move. It just has to be difficult because you have all these social media marketers out there pushing social media while saying that any company that ignores social media is going to be lapped.
I’m not sure that’s the case.
If your customer is 60 years old and traditionally a catalog buyer I’m not sure that you need to have a Facebook page and Twitter account. Who’s going to follow you?
There are specific audiences on each of the social media sites and going even deeper than that is the fact that the people that will actually pay you for your services and goods are on specific social media sites if they’re there at all.
There are not shortcuts with social media. The first thing you need to determine is if your target customer is using social media. Next you need to figure out if your target customers are willing to purchase from your brand after learning about your company from your social media efforts.
Those are important questions. I think social media has been oversold a bit as a cure all for businesses and it’s just not the case. There is hard work involved in social media and I’m going to include blogging in this discussion.
Blogging is tough.
There are a number of blogs out there that started maybe six months ago. The posts come for about four weeks and then there is a month in between posts and now there hasn’t been a post in three months. You’ve probably seen these blogs.
There are people out there that will oversell blogging and other social media. It’s not easy work and that’s why you have all these empty blogs out there and empty social media accounts.
There is no shortcut with blogging and social media. You need to really do your homework with social media and blogging to understand if there is good chance that if you invest time and money that you’ll get something in return. That’s just the reality of how things are with social media. It’s not really a dirty job in terms of Mike Roe, but there are some things that require you to get down and do some research. There are mundane things involved and some people aren’t ready for this.
There are no shortcuts with social media. Do your homework and make sure there are potential rewards for your efforts. If there are then get excited because there is opportunity out there for those willing to work hard.