Most businesses have now found their way onto social media.
Everybody seems to be taking the plunge, businesses small and large. For this to be the case it must be beneficial. While there is no doubt social media has proved to be a huge success, can business really mix with pleasure?
Is social media more effective than flyering, or newspaper adverts? Or is it simply a phase that will soon pass?
Pros…
Humanizes Your Business…
Social media is a great way in which to humanize your business and create more of a personality around it. Your fans/followers/customers can see behind the scenes of your business, and buy into a personality. It also means they can interact with you easily and in an informal manor.
Access to Millions of People…
There are 995 million Facebook users and 500 million Twitter users.
This platform gives your business access to millions of people to gain awareness of your business. It takes time to build this awareness through social media, however with all these people accessible in one place, it makes flyering house to house seem dated.
Sends Traffic to Your Website…
You can post links to your website on your social media pages which instantly attracts people to look at your website where you can hopefully convert them from a visitor into an actual customer.
People prefer to simply click a link, rather than read a leaflet and type in your website address. The easier it is for someone the better. Most of us have limited time so are unlikely to spend time reading flyers and looking up the web addresses place on them.
Instant…
Social media is so instant it is a real benefit to gain fast results.
If you have news to spread, or want to launch a new product, or run a survey, your results will be pretty instant, which is great if you want to get your business moving quickly.
Cons…
It Can Easily be a Phase…
Myspace was once a bustling social media outlet, however its popularity plummeted.
This could so easily be the case for Facebook and Twitter. People can be fickle and while businesses are so focussed on social media, it is wise to address other forms of marketing to reach people in a range of methods, just in case they are shutting themselves off from potential customers they don’t manage to reach online.
People Don’t Like to Mix Business and Pleasure…
People are becoming more aware of business competitions and social media marketing for businesses that they aren’t following pages as freely as they once did.
Social media was set up for friends to share images, chat and be social. It wasn’t set up as a business platform, so some will choose to follow/like their favourite pages but many choose to avoid it now to really focus on the reason why they are registered with these social media sites- to socialise with their friends.
Social Media Doesn’t Always Provide You with Real Fans…
While it is a great way to network, a lot of page followers can be your competitors researching the market, or those who have just liked you to win a competition you might have run.
While it’s a great face for your business, you also need genuine customers so need to make sure you are targeting actual people who are interested in your products or services.
If you do flyering and someone takes time to visit your website, they are likely to be genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
Overall social media is certainly tog dog at present.
However is you really want to guarantee success, make sure you really invest time thinking about your marketing strategy. Chucking a few status updates up online isn’t enough to bring you reliable custom. Work hard and plan exactly what you feel might be successful.
Cover as many mediums as possible. Newspapers and flyering can still be highly effective at bringing in customer, while they aren’t as instant as social media, they can be more long lasting in print and attract genuine customers.
Question: Are you using social media effectively for your business? If not what is stopping you, please feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
Photo credit: ivanpw
