Why Social Media?
Whenever we suggest social media to new or current clients the first question is always the same: Why? Why social media? How much money can it make us? How much time will it take?
I’ve thought a lot about these questions. I’ve also read many articles about why. In the end, the reasons go beyond what a lot of people expect when looking into advertising: Social media isn’t there to sell products in a direct manner; you shouldn’t go into it thinking you can take five minutes to write a blog post or update your status on MySpace and have a million friends or readers.
Social media is there for one sole purpose: To put a face and / or a personality to either the people who work for your company or for the company or product itself. The generation of 20- and 30-somethings is a generation of people who want to know why they should buy your product. Not just that they should. They’re a generation of people who listen to friends’ advice and often times will spend more on a product because it has better reviews online.
Not that any of this is something companies don’t already know. When asked “Why should I use social media?” I want to just respond, “Why not?” With an estimated 272 million users worldwide, how can you stop and ask why should you be using social media? The better question at that point is indeed “Why not?”
It’s not even hard to start; pick a goal and move with it. The biggest thing to keep in mind with social media is that people aren’t looking to be sold something. They instead want to feel like they know the company. They want to see how you operate or what your CEO did that day. They want to make a connection with you on a personal level, not just be told to buy your product. The very act of making your company personable is what will sell them.
The investment required to conduct social networking really depends on what you want to do. Most social networking sites are free, so the cost to start is nothing. All it will take is some time; and, of course, the amount of time it takes depends on your goal. If I were to estimate, I would say it could take anywhere from an hour to five hours a week. More or less given what you’re doing. Writing a blog post generally only takes anywhere from ten to thirty minutes. Writing a tweet for Twitter takes a matter of seconds.
In the end, while the time you use to update your networking sites may not be free, think of the customer-base you’re building for yourself and your company. Repeat customers continue going somewhere because they like the service or the atmosphere. With social networking, you’re maintaining the atmosphere or setting it for us before we even commit to your product or services.
So, why aren’t you using social media to your advantage yet?
Most recent posts by Angela
- Shoppers Want Companies with "Human Face" - June 5th, 2009
- Protect Yourself: Beat Brand-Squatters - May 22nd, 2009
- Social Profile: The Mommy Blogger - April 24th, 2009
- Where to Start with Social Media - March 13th, 2009
Tweet This!
February 27th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
As a matter of fact I just Twittered this post. It is so right on. Social media is about sowing not reaping.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
[...] submit_url = “http://www.sagerock.com/blog/where-to-start/”; Picking up where I last left off on the 27th, I wanted to continue the social media discussion and give you idea’s on how to start. In my [...]