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3 Warning Signs Your Company is Not Ready for Social Media
You hear it everywhere: Social Media is the place to be. You hear it on the media, you hear it from your progressive employees and/or salespeople, heck, you might even hear it from your own head. A little man sits on your shoulder everyday saying, “You better pay attention here, you’re missing out!”
Wherever the message is coming from, social media marketing and advertising sounds pretty good. The trouble is, as the business owner or manager, you’re not a user of social and there’s a lot about it you may not know.
The customary response when you believe your business needs support is to hire someone to “get it done.” Social media marketing and advertising is unlike any other component of your business’ operation. It isn’t something to “get done”; it’s a continuing connection and conversation with customers and prospects. Social media is a place where companies win and fail, sometimes on the same day.
The value of social media cannot be overstated. However, it’s not for everyone. There are huge pitfalls and even bigger operational commitments involved. I’ve personally experienced situations with our clients who thought they wanted social media marketing and advertising but were either not willing to make the commitment or were not truly ready for it.
Everyone has to start somewhere and there are solutions for those that aren’t ready. In fact, I’ve been blogging for 4+ years about social media and where your business fits it. If you’re considering social media marketing and advertising, review these 3 warning signs before you give it the green light:
3 Warning Signs Your Company is Not Ready for Social Media
1. You Think Social Media is Free
Marketing’s biggest myth is that social media is free. Even before Facebook’s algorithms restricted content, rendering it pay-to-play, social media was not free.
Like all other forms of marketing and advertising, social requires skill and a budget. It’s complicated and much harder to get results today than it has been in the past. Social advertising is a very valuable tool and the skills it takes to succeed don’t grow on trees.
Mastering social media marketing requires the publication of relevant, engaging content on your selected channels. Balancing your brand’s message with the needs and wants of your customers and prospects is no easy task. It takes expertise and that costs money.
Social is also an imperative channel in your SEO. Whether you do it in house or collaborate with a Social Business Center, there must be an allocated monthly budget. If you’re not willing to spend the needed expense to generate leads, you’re not ready for social media.
2. You’re a perfectionist and recoil at the thought of transparency and authenticity.
Social media is social. Synonyms for social are community, public, shared collective, group, party, gathering. If these terms send shivers down your spine, you’re not ready for social media.
Emotions play an important part in marketing and sales. Evoking buyers’ emotions is actually the goal of all marketing. Emotions are human. If you’re a person who has severed your emotions from everything you do in business, that renders you non-human. Viewers (buyers) sense this and leave. Authentic communication wins in social media.
Marketing is not an exact science and therefore not perfect. You must be willing to accept the fact that there is a creative component to social media. If you’re not a creative type of person who focuses mainly on concrete ideas and scientific absolutes you must allow others to take up the slack and complete your marketing and advertising.
Great social media marketing requires openness and transparency. If you’re paranoid and/or controlling by nature, social media will never be a place for your business. This doesn’t make you wrong, only that social media is not a solution for revenue growth.
3. Your idea of employee recognition is that you pay them every month.
Leaders in social business know that employees are huge resources for teaching buyers about the company, its products and services. They treat employees as valued team members, not as numbers. If your employees believe they are not valued, then you’re not ready for social media.
A daily operation that doesn’t lend itself to an open environment of content creation and collaboration will not succeed on social media. There are numerous studies that show consumer trust levels are highest with employees. Consumers see your employees as “people like me.” The more you can involve your salespeople in Social Selling, the higher your success rate.
Leveraging your employees’ ideas and contributions for content on social media is an important component of your social marketing success. If you’re not willing to implement a process to capture and publish stories of employees’ expertise to attract more buyers, you’re not ready for social media.
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