When it comes to social media it’s important to understand what you’re aiming to get out of it.
As you might imagine in our line of work we’re often asked “Do I really need a Facebook page?”
And like with many things we always answer: “yes, but it largely depends on what you’re aiming at”.
Do you want to build a huge Facebook presence through a fan page or people liking your business page? Do you want a large Twitter following? Or how about a massive network on LinkedIn?
And if you achieve all of these things what next? What will you do with all of these connections? Do you really have the capacity to maintain a dialogue with such a large group? And will that dialogue contribute to your business goals? Will it turn into profit?
If you’re unable to answer any of these questions fully (especially the last one) we recommend that you think very carefully before committing huge resources to social media.
Although the channels are free to use it’s far too easy to spend loads of valuable time (or spend a bunch of money on services) trying to ‘connect’ with your audience with little or nothing to show for it all.
Our view is that before you get started with spending time and effort on social media it’s vital to think about your business goals and put them first.
The biggest problem with social media right now is that there is so much hype
with conspicuously few people talking about business results. Loads of so-called social media ‘experts’ putting the spin before the substance.
So, don’t get caught up in the hype. Use the social media to move your business towards your goals and not just because everybody says you should be there.
The support I provide to my clients with marketing tasks varies from setting up social media pages to following up prospect leads face to face, email or telephone call. I have read your entries on social media with interest. Clients and contacts do ask “do I need to a Facebook /Twitter page” My answer matches your statement “think about your business goals” and whilst my business is to provide time and resource to clients, and with that social media management, I make sure that clients are clear on what they want. Where social media is concerned I can only do so much especially if the USP for that business is them.
Thanks Hannah, it’s good to hear from you and also good to know that some of us in the web services world are adopting a common sense approach.
I’ve just spent the last couple of hours with my latest client and she confessed that there is so much hype around SM that it’s difficult to know where to turn.