Social Media is Not a Silver Bullet

You may have heard both sides of the “social media for business” debate.  There are your colleagues who swear by it — there’s never been an easier or cheaper way to market & grow revenue than social media.  Then, there are naysayers.  The ones who spent evenings and midnights trying to figure it out, possibly even invested financial resources into it, not to achieve a return on investment.

If you haven’t started social media for your business yet, you may be considering it.  Perhaps you want to be like your successful colleague, but you are too afraid you’ll end up like the frustrated colleague.  You don’t have time or money to waste, but you need to grow your business.  Is social media the answer?

The short answer is “maybe.”  The long answer depends on whether or not you have a plan.

Social Media Planning for Business

Starting any new business venture with a plan may increase its chance of success.  This is the best way to make sure you don’t waste time or money on social media.

A social media plan, like a business plan or a marketing plan, will begin with a good deal of research.  Asking honest questions at this stage is very important – you need the honest answers, even if it means learning that social media is absolutely not for you.  Some of these questions might be:

1. Will social media directly help me obtain my current business objectives?
2. Who is my audience?  (Think demographics, behaviors, buying patterns).  Do they use social media?
3. Are my competitors using social media?  If so, are they successful?
4. Is this the best use of my company’s time and resources right now?

If the answer to any of these questions is “NO”, it doesn’t mean the end of your social media dreams.  It can mean that now might not be the right time, or perhaps you need to explore each of these questions further to make sure you really understand what “No” means.  If you said “No” about your audience using social media, perhaps there are new audiences you can market to who do.  If social media isn’t the best use of company resources right now, perhaps it is once you get a few other high-priority, high-results efforts out of the way.

Once you know it’s the right time and social media is the right choice, start your plan.  The plan tells you who your audience is, where they go in social media, what they are attracted to, what they share, how frequently you need to be involved in social media to catch their attention, and what kinds of results you should expect to see.

One thing is for certain, and you’ve probably heard it before:  Social media is not a silver bullet for business results.  Don’t quit all other marketing efforts for social media because it seems inexpensive & easy.  Add it in to your marketing mix at the right time, and add it smartly, with a plan to make sure you won’t be wasting your time or money.

For more information, please see:

Social Media is a Waste of Time
Stop Wasting Time with Social Media
Stop Wasting Time on Social Media