The Disadvantages to Social Media MarketingSocial Media is a fantastic tool if used properly, but it takes time and dedication
As with everything in life the good must be paired
with the bad. Many articles (including mine) promote the positive benefits of
using Social Media to help promote businesses in the Industrial Automation /
Building Automation space.
Social Media
marketing is a fantastic tool in any marketer’s tool box, but many authors don’t
want to talk about the pitfalls associated with it. There are a great many
advantages that can be utilized such as rapid viral exposure for products,
increased search engine rankings and above all qualified leads and sales. There
are also some things to be aware of:
1. Bad Branding – The
wrong online brand strategy can doom a company, and put you at a huge viral
social disadvantage. Just ask Sony. Sony has a great platform in the PS3 but
they chose to neglect the value of effective social media and as a result the
sales of the Microsoft Xbox have soared while Sony’s always remain number
two.
2. Commitment – I have
mentioned this in past articles, but it really can’t be over stated. If your
company decided to start a blog, twitter feed, or Facebook page, then designate
someone to maintain it. There is nothing worse than going to visit a corporate
blog in September and the last post was in June. It tells potential customers
that if you are too busy to maintain your blog then you are probably too busy to
provide them with customer support. They will shop elsewhere. If as a company
you can’t commit at least 6-8 hrs a week on Social Media then don’t bother with
it. Social Media is a living breathing beast. If you feed the beast then the
beast works for you, but you need to feed it often.
3. Relevant content!
- Let’s be honest. Blogs and Twitter feeds tend to take on the persona
of their authors and this is a bad, bad thing! It is not an individual’s feed
or blog, it belongs to the company and they have designated you as the rep to
post. Many Social media marketers forget this and think that they are the blog
or feed. This will only end in a bad way. Corporate blogs and feeds should be
agnostic. They need to be interesting and represent the company, but they
should be designed that authors can be swapped out with a limited drop in
following. Granted some companies have “celebrities” that they want to showcase
and that is a good thing, but have a plan should they ever leave the company.
You do not want all of your social media efforts and ranking to disappear
because someone decided to leave the company. Social Media is a marketing tool
that needs serious content. No one cares that you are in Switzerland for a
conference and seeing the local sites. What readers care about is what
technological advances you learned about at the conference that might impact
them.
4. Time – I mentioned
before that getting involved with Social Media is very time consuming. As a
company you will need to designate an individual to constantly feed your pages
and profile with relevant content (see point three). This individual also has
to monitor comments and respond to questions. For small companies this can be a
serious problem as they need all hands on deck to keep the company afloat. The
commitment of time is why many small companies choose not to engage in social
media to boost their marketing efforts. They realize their limitations and
simply do without. This is where an outside consultant becomes
invaluable.
5. No short term ROI –
The honest truth is that Social Media Marketing is a long term strategy. Seeing
a return could take anywhere from a few months to a year before a company sees
the benefits of increased customer loyalty and sales.
6. The risk of negative
comments – Any time a company opens itself up to open criticism there is
the possibility of negative comments about a product or service. I don’t see
this as a negative. I have always found that the measure of a quality company
was how they dealt with problems, and companies that admit their faults, fix
them, and carry on, sell more products. Consumers want customer service. They
want to know that the company that they bought the product from is fixing any
issues quickly and listening to them. Wal-mart used this strategy to help
create the employee share program where every employee of a store gets a split
of the store they work at profits once per year to reward their employees for
their hard work. Wal-mart used their corporate blog comments to develop this
program and increase productivity.
Above all Social Media is a fantastic tool if used properly, but it takes time and dedication. Imagine a scenario where something goes wrong with a product line. Social Media can be used to get your corporate apology and statement out extremely quickly to do damage control and get a statement out before your customers start forming a negative opinion. It is a great tool, but every tool has to have safety precautions when using it.
Above all Social Media is a fantastic tool if used properly, but it takes time and dedication. Imagine a scenario where something goes wrong with a product line. Social Media can be used to get your corporate apology and statement out extremely quickly to do damage control and get a statement out before your customers start forming a negative opinion. It is a great tool, but every tool has to have safety precautions when using it.
Ultimately, deciding
if you should employ social networks as part of your marketing plan comes down
to what is right for your business. Can you afford to commit the time and
effort to reap the rewards? Social Media is definitely not a “band-aid”
solution to a poor marketing plan, or to give you a sudden surge of sales.
Social Media is a committed effort to building relationships and a client base
for the long haul.
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