Do You Hate Social Media?
Posted by
Betsy Kent on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 @ 07:24 PM
As a Social Media expert I am frequently referred to businesses that need my help. I work with large companies, online retailers, and marketing agencies. But I have many clients that fall into the “small but successful”, category, too. And, the majority of these “small but successful” businesses are owned by really smart, really fearless, and really dynamic people.
These really smart, fearless, and dynamic people seem to have one thing in common: They “hate” Social Media!
How do I know they hate Social Media? Because invariably when I first sit down to work with them, they start our conversation in one of these ways:
- “I know we should be “doing” Social Media, but I don’t know why.”
- “I’m really stupid about these things.”
- “I hate Facebook and I hate that my kids spend so much time on it.”
- “My competitors aren’t doing it; why should I?”
- “I am totally confused about Social Media and I don’t like it.”
- “How much does this stuff cost?”
First of all, I want to say that I completely understand why successful business owners in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s would hate Social Media. After all, they built their businesses without Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And, if they use Social Media at all, they may use Facebook as a personal tool for keeping up with those people from high school that they hadn’t planned to keep up with in the first place!
However, the reality is that Social Media is in our world, it affects all aspects of our lives, and it has a huge impact on our businesses. We can’t live without it. But instead of approaching it as a drain on resources (time and money), I encourage clients to look at Social Media as a wonderful opportunity.
The opportunity is this: for the first time, you can have a big impact on how your business appears to the public by using Social Media. When you Google the name of your company you should see 1-3 pages full of links to content that conveys your business’ unique value and expertise. Why?
Because research has shown that Search Engine searches are used more often than any other research tool as the primary source of information gathering in preparation for a purchasing decision. And this is true for B2B as well as for B2C.
Social Media activities increase the links to your business on Search Engines and enable you to control what your prospective clients and customers see. That is particularly important if you depend on word-of-mouth to grow your business.
So, if you don’t like what get when you Google your company’s name, give me a call. I’ll teach you how to love Social Media (or maybe just “Like” it.).