by Stephanie Weg
There are many reasons why Social Media is a useful but also potentially risky way of communicating. My take: it is up to every individual to decide whether Social Media is for them. For companies, however, especially once they reach a certain size, Social Media is not a topic they can afford to ignore. Why? Read on.
Social Media can damage – a fake twitter account (@BPGlobalPR) has almost 1000 times more followers than their official account (@BP_America). Social Media can make world leaders – president Obama used Social Media to win the financial (6.5 million donations, 6 million of $100 or less) and voting support of the citizens of the U.S..
One thing is sure: Social Media is the subject of many passionate debates online and offline. As a private person, there are a many reasons why one would choose to use or not use Social Media. I personally find it quite helpful because my friends are distributed all over the globe, and there is no easier way than a glance at Facebook to at least get a high-level overview of what is going on for them.
What about businesses though? Let me give you some numbers:
By 2015, Business Insights reports, 80% of consumer expenditure will be reachable through Social Media. This means that the giant’s share of money people spend on stuff can be influenced through Social Media.
At an individual level, the Social Media Examiner 2010 Social Media Marketing Report shows that
- 85% of marketers have found the usage of Social Media resulting in greater
exposure for their business - 56% achieved new business partnerships, and
- 48% sold their products/services through Social Media
Great, I hear you say, but does that mean I have only a 50% chance to actually get sales through Social Media? Yes and no. The median time spent on Social Media marketing per marketer was 6 hours per week, which is probably the absolute minimum time required for a sizeable business to have a living, breathing, well moderated social media presence.
How many hours you need to invest to get some tangible returns depends on your business, your product, your audience...and your specific goals.
However, even when someone is absolutely positive that Social Media is not for their business, I would advise one thing: Book your “Social Media insurance” by listening. If your company has more clients than you can speak to personally, you might be interested in knowing what they say about you out there in the Social Web. There is nothing that stops them from mentioning your name on Facebook, Twitter and Co..
When have you last googled your brand name? When have you last searched for it on Twitter or checked whether someone created a Facebook page with it? The damage which could potentially be done is huge. Insideview shows that one negative customer review on Social Media can cost a company about 30 customers.
To close, let me quote one of my favourite lines by Kelly Thul from State Farm Insurance, a leading US insurance company which is very successful using Social Media: “They are going to be talking about you, whether you like it or not. And the only question is, are you going to be part of that conversation or not?”
This is a decision everyone has to make individually. But would you really rather not know what people say about you? So start at least monitoring today!
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