By B.L. Ochman
This morning, a friend asked me, “are there any companies that shouldn’t use social media?” And the answer, without a doubt, is yes.
While social media has gone mainstream, and shiny new objects from GPS-based networks to social gaming and social shopping; velvet rope social networks, real-time reviews and augmented reality browsers have gained traction, there are still some situations where none of these tools and tactics will work.
Social media is not the answer when:
1- You need to generate a high volume of sales in a short time. Social media can create trust for a brand, but building trust takes time. Over time, social media can help a brand create sales, and those sales can be tracked. Don’t count on making next month’s quota because you started a Facebook page.
If you need sales in a hurry, think about direct mail, sales incentives, and advertising. Hint: all of those will work better if you have spent the time building relationships.
2- You need a quick fix for a tarnished reputation.
Social media can sometimes provide quick results for a company that’s already a star. When a well-loved company like Zappos, or Google employs social media, its loyal fans and followers pay attention.
However, there’s a lot of desperation in a lot of corporate suites these days, and many companies seem been convinced that a social media campaign can provide a quick fix to sagging sales or reputation issues. Sorry, nuh, uh.
3- You don’t have a realistic budget.
Building a site that incorporates interactivity, allows user-generated content, and perhaps also includes e-commerce doesn’t come cheap from anyone who knows what they are doing.
Even taking free software like WordPress and making it function as an effective interactive site, incorporating e-commerce, creating style sheets that integrate with the company’s branding, takes more than time. That takes skill, experience, and money.
Producing meaningful results from social media requires the time and expertise of people who really understand both your business objectives and the strategies needed to reach them. Unfortunately, many companies look at social media as an experiment and don’t commit time, money, or expertise to creating a multi-faceted, multi-channel approach.
Business initiatives without sufficient resources – in social media or anywhere else for that matter – are doomed to failure. If your resources are limited, there are better ways to spend them than single channel social media toe-in-the-water experiments.
I’m not saying there’s never been a company that pulled off a successful one-off social media stunt, I’m just saying I wouldn’t want to put my clients’ eggs in that basket.
4- You don’t have top management buy-in
Social media requires a way of thinking that includes willingness to listen to customers, make changes based on feedback, and trust employees to talk to customers.
The culture of fear (of job loss, of losing message control, of change) is ingrained in corporate cultures. Top management has to want to allow change.
5- Your customers don’t use the Internet as their main form of communication.
If your customers’ purchasing decision makers don’t use the Internet on a pretty constant basis as a main source of information – and, there are still fields like where people don’t – you probably won’t be successful reaching them through open social networks.
6- Your company doesn’t want to listen to its customers.
The key to success in social media is willingness to listen, react, and change. “What if people say bad things about us in comments?” is a question that comes up a lot. My answer is “that may mean there’s something you need to change.”
B2B or B2C, from Dell to Starbucks to Ford, SAP to Siemens, IBM to Intel, companies that let consumers interact with their brands repeatedly report that both their brands and their sales are strengthened.
7- Lawyers have to vet every word your company says publicly.
Social media conversations happen in real time. If your attorneys won’t allow comments on the company blog, or let executives respond to questions in social networks, you’re not ready for social media.
Before you get stick your corporate toe in the social media pool, consider the caveats. If you don’t ever want to get wet, stay out of the water.
Illustration by Hugh Macleod, gapingvoid
7 reasons social media won’t work for your company
Categories: Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Internet strategy, Marketing Strategy, Reality Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
Tags: , B2B social media, BL Ochman, corporate social media, Hugh Macleod, social media don'ts, social media marketing
Tags: , B2B social media, BL Ochman, corporate social media, Hugh Macleod, social media don'ts, social media marketing
I am glad to see someone taking on the flip side of SM. It amazes me how everyone thought that this would be a slam dunk. It is a lot of work and the user and company must be quite savvy.
I disagree on the premise of this post. While companies need to be cautious, they also need to control their branding in social media. They don’t have to have a corporate game plan and social media strategy if it doesn’t fit, but they do need own their name in the “space”. You’d spend more time sending cease & desist letters, investigating fraud accounts, etc if you spent a small amount of time and money to control your presence.
And I think we all lose sight of how small social media really is. It’s not going to be a savior, it’s a bunch of tools and people should use them while relevant.
Jason – you can search the planet and you won’t find a stronger advocate for social media than me. but the doesn’t mean it’ll work for every company and these are the reasons why.
Many of the most enormous corporations are still new to the world of emerging media. The biggest mistake I see is companies wanting to put just a toe in the water with a Facebook fan page or a Twitter stream they want to use only to broadcast their press releases.
You’ll never convince me that any company will get great benefit from a one-off foray into social media. Until companies are ready to listen, respond, and change, and include emerging media in the architecture of their marketing strategy, they might as well continue on the dinosaur trail.
Here’s Martha, your ambassador from the State of Freelancia. I’d like to add a suggestion to point #1:
As an itty-bitty freelancer who has experienced the need to generate sales in a hurry, I’ve found that nothing beats cold calling. As in, picking up the phone and asking strangers for their business.
Been doing it for three years, and that’s how I’ve found my most lucrative clients. Best form of outreach I know.
In addition to doing outreach, I’ve also found that it’s important to build visibility and credibility. Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are great places for doing so.
However, visibility and credibility take time. And if you don’t have time, you’d better hit the outreach really hard.
I think used in the typical sense the social networks may have the initial drawbacks you cover. However utilizing real time strategies (very low cost) and bypassing the “add a thousand friends” type of resource wasting can help with a myriad of visibility problems,reputation management and other seo equivalents.Social media can be utilized in so many fashions it is hard to lay down any “rules of the road”
This was a great article and thank you for saying that social media is for business if its done with the correct intention.
We work with many mid to large enterprise companies who won’t even log onto Facebook to see what the world looks like from their customers eyes. Executive buy in is huge to success.
I feel the value of taking brands or products to localized levels are even more important to hearing your customers. However, don’t hit the delete button every time someone complains. It amazes me how fear can paralyze and control businesses communications.
It’s sad and I don’t think it will change in the near future if the advertising agencies “helping” brand and market don’t change their strategy. It’s time, valuable content and polling mixed with quick response and attention to the customers desires. After all, they drive the almighty dollar.