Time and again I come across people who wish to implement a Social Media Marketing Strategy for their company and often, though I should not be doing so, I tell them NOT to go for such a campaign. The reasons vary in different cases but there are a few things which I noted were common among organizations. Hence I thought to list out the 5 major reasons why you shouldn’t be implementing a social media strategy.
Reason 1: You dont have money to spend.
Where it comes from: People, often at some respectable positions in their organizations, say that when Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Slideshare, LinkedIn – all are free then why should I invest?
Argument: Excuse me sir, the platforms/services are free but the effort to build and maintain them takes a lot of human time and effort. There has to be a lot of thought given and implementing those thoughts is some serious amount of work. I am sure you agree, at least in the professional world, TIME is MONEY.
[Realized that I wrote a blog post sometime back in 2009, The Internet is NOT Free. It perfectly explains this point in detail.]
Reason 2: You don’t have time to engage with your audience.
Where it comes from: My company is doing a great job and I am more busy working rather than spending time on social media.
Argument: An organization’s biggest asset, after its employees, is its customers. Yes, you may argue on the point who’s more important: employee or customer, but that’s a little Off-Topic here.
So, when you are not ready to engage/talk/listen with your customer or potential customers, who else will? You are the best person who knows about your product/service, isn’t it? So if you won’t talk about it or address people who are related to it, no one else will. You NEED to get your hands dirty.
Reason 3: You dont know what you want to achieve from the activity.
Where it comes from: I always ask this question: What’s the objective of the campaign? The most common answer is get is, I don’t know, let’s see. Let’s start then we’ll see how it turns out.
Argument: It’s time you should understand, this is NOT your personal diary. It’s the internet, anything you say/do out there leaves a permanent mark and the entire globe can see it, that too on demand (thanks to Google). So if you are not sure what do you want to attain from the campaign, better spend some more time, do some home work before you take the plunge. This answer also probably should answer thee most over asked question in Social Media Marketing – The ROI.
Reason 4: You want to do because the entire world is talking about it and don’t want to be left out.
Where it comes from: Often people say, there is so much hype about social media, it must be of some relevance, let us also get into it. And that statement would be supported with “Our competitors are already there” or “Lets get in before our competitors get in”
Argument: Let the entire world be there, that should not be the point. You do not drink water because others do, or do you? Similarly your social media activities should not be because others/competitors are doing so, do it if you NEED to. Yes, I am saying that find out the reasons first as to why you need to get the campaign and then set it out rolling. Don’t just roll it to SEE.
Reason 5: You don’t want to create content.
Where it comes from: A company says, I want buzz around my product, people should talk [about certain things]
Argument: Yes, people are there on Facebook, Twitter but they are there for a reason. They tweet and update statuses for various reasons. Why would they talk about your product? You need to give them some incentive or material to talk about. In most cases you will have to start the topic/activity and then give them some bait so that they talk and keep the conversation going. It just DOESN’T happen on its own. After all, like you, everyone else is also busy.
While there maybe more reasons, these are 5 of them which I come across often in my professional life and thought to share with everybody. Have you as a marketer or a company professional been wondering about these questions? Have a word or two to say about this or add some more points feel free to drop in to comments, we love discussions and learnings don’t we?
