3 Scenarios of Social Media Today
We hear about social media all the time now. Objective marketers and executives are asking:
- “What good is Social Media for me?”
- “How should I leverage it?
Like anything else “new”, many people are doing it just because others are. Some don’t yet have goals. But you’re different. You want to size up social media before you invest money and your valuable time. To help put social media into perspective today, we’ve boiled down Social Media into 3 scenarios. Which scenario fits you?
Scenario A: No-Brainer
If you’re selling a product or providing a service that’s pleasure-centric or inspires passion and it changes over time, you’re probably in the “No-Brainer” scenario. Business that easily fit into this scenario include restaurants, theme parks, women’s boutique clothing stores, museums, theaters, etc. The amount of “work” you will need to do to stoke things up depends on the loyalty of your audience. Providing the venue (like Facebook), updating news, and telling your audience about it regularly typically brings good results such as increased visits, increased sales, increased loyalty, and more referrals. My recommendation is to research, plan your strategy, and implement soon.
Scenario B: Experimental
Are you a B2B company? Or selling a utility product or providing a service that gets something done and isn’t really something people generally find exciting by itself? You’re probably in the Experimental scenario. Many companies are testing and measuring their investment into social media and getting mixed results. Generally, having a strategy and goals brings better results, but sometimes people just aren’t interested enough to participate in being social with an accountant, or a manufacturer of windows. However, the same was probably assumed about supply chain solution providers. Then Kinaxis found a way to make a connection with their audiences with the use of humor and gained incredible results. (Read “The Definitive Case for B2B Social Media Marketing“).
The lesson here is: There are many industries with the assumption that it’s not relevant. First, understand what you want out of a social media investment. Learn from Kinaxis and others while being creative in how you plan on reaching your audience through social media over the long-term. Count the cost of money, time, payroll, and etc over a few years to determine when is a good time to start. Test and measure. You will most likely evolve your strategy over time. Some will win, some won’t. Are you an innovator or late-adopter?
Scenario C: Unjustified
Just like busywork, there’s always something you can be doing, but that doesn’t mean you should be doing it. Don’t worry about social media right now if your organization:
- Doesn’t have goals that social media can help meet now or the near future
- Doesn’t have time or resources to do a whole-hearted social media effort
- The cost outweighs the expected benefits
If you believe that this is your scenario, I encourage you to revisit whether social media is relevant again next year.
In the long run
In 10 to 15 years, a company who does not having an active social channel with customers may be like a company who doesn’t have a website today. It makes good sense for companies to be socially available and engaged with customers. The questions to be answered are:
- What will our company gain, by being social this year, 5 years, and 10 years down the road?
- When does it make sense for our company to become social and with which audiences?
- How can we make it enjoyable for our audiences and us?
Social Media is much more than Facebook and Twitter. There are many industry-centric venues and new innovative channels created each month. Companies are also creating their own venues. As always, keep yourself updated and know what’s going on:
“Any enterprise built by wise planning becomes strong through common sense and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts.” -Proverbs 24: 3&4
