3 Compelling Reasons To Use Social Media For Business

I may be a tad bit extreme or a old scrooge. Apologies. Though…

One thing I hate about social media is that the relationships that you build are superfluous. That you can have 10000 followers but you have no way to turn it into a profit.

The only thing that it does is a ego trip. It is a real danger that's lurking.

Social media is only a tool to building real relationships. Until you can show 10000 followers that you can offer them something, that you are giving them value, there is no way to monetize or benefit from social media.

It's a “Me” world right now.

If you have 10,000 followers and “no way to turn it into a profit” then something is wrong. It also takes time to build an awareness of your brand. You have to give more than you take by sharing resources or engaging in discussion. People will then gladly visit your website.

What about Tumblr?

What about Tumblr?

Is this really that helpful to many people? Looking at some other comments you see that some people still don't get “How social media can be useful for business”. What is frequently ignored is that it's a two way street. It can be very beneficial for customers too to have a close link to the owner of a business or the provider of a service. Don't look at social media as a way just to push sales but look at it as a way to garner quality feedback from your customers and users so that you can improve the quality of your product. I believe in the ethos that the customer knows what they want, but frequently only once they have seen it. Bounce your ideas out there and if you're lucky enough to have a thousand followers you should get some valuable feedback.

Hey Mike. Thanks for the comments and i'm definitely with your view. Glad that you brought your points!

Hi!

hmm if you measure your ROI as $$$, you're bound to be disappointed. Take a look at @Zappos, @Starbucks and @WholeFoods. (http://www.penn-olson.com/2009/09/08/10-success…)

None of them have a direct agenda to monetize their followers. Intangible returns like relationship and brand building are far more easier to build on social media. No one likes to follow someone who has the obvious intention to sell (followers can tell by your tweets). The intangibles are hard to measure but there are a couple of ways to have a rough gauge though.

http://www.penn-olson.com/2009/08/20/how-to-mea…

Hope it helps and thank u once again!

Banglacow: I agree with Mark very much but I can definitely see where you are coming from. We have been advocating relationship building and we believe that the number of followers is not strongly correlated with the success of a company in social media. Most small businesses i have seen only have a max of about 2000 followers on Twitter and even less on Facebook. But the response they get is genuine. They are able to talk to at least half of their followers on a regular basis. I can shout it out loud that these relationships are not superfluous. That's not to say that big companies with thousands of followers are engaging in superfluous relationships. We can't blame them for not being able to talk to consumers on a one to one basis. However, social media has made it possible for companies to reach out and listen in a more efficient way. Take Starbucks Idea as an example.

New/ improved products, greater understanding of the company and better customer service have been materialized through the use of social media. That is success to me.

Consumers appreciate genuine relationships and the effort to listen to their voices. Social media can definitely help you achieve that. Of course, ego trips are prevalent everywhere and i call that an abuse to social media. That is a wrong use of social media we definitely do not condone.

Also, like what Willis said, monetary benefits is not the only benefits company can enjoy. (:

Hope this helps!

Kawasaki said something like this at a forum recently.

“People who complain the most are the people who have been on twitter for 4 weeks, they have 25 followers, they made 3 tweets and they are telling you what to do. I find it extremely ironical. I mean . . . This person has 25 followers of which 24 look… like porn stars. It's a long answer for me to tell you … just ignore these people.”

He's referring to me !@#%&^!#%. hahaha !
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@will ROI is about money ! The Ka Ching !~ The big MOOlah !

I mean, if I am running a business, the fundamental success would be measured by $$ right?

Brandshare, mind share, brand awareness ==>intangible==>unclear==>shareholders unhappy.

Sadly most companies focus on the bottom-line. I hope to be proved otherwise.

Social media can help. And I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA! Though there's no way to measure the effectiveness. By amount of followers? I mean by what? Is there a index of showing how effective my tweets are? There are rough gauges yes but but …

That's the part I hate the most. Uncertainty.

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(A random point)
Lowcost ==> Is a trap !~ People are lulled into this trap when it is cheap. They start to have low standards too.Goes both ways, consumers indiscriminately consume and freeloads, company just starts giving and giving and giving with no effective strategy.

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@mark fulton
I once saw a tweeter profile with 100 000 followers with not a single tweet. All it had was a sexy looking girl staring with her big brown eyes. Gently seducing.

Though I agree, “10 000 followers but not able to turn it into profit something must be wrong”. Let's stop and think about it. Why would I follow someone? Because it benefits me. Because it is all about me me me. Because you are offering value. Let's leave internet marketing aside and just think about brick and mortar businesses. Would it compel me to walk into your shop anytime soon?

Yes, maybe, maybe not. My hunch is Real relationships need to be built first before social media becomes effective. It is like those food TV shows recommending the restaurants to go to. We all enjoy watching it but how many of us actually go.

1. you stay in the area
2. a friend who has eaten there before tells you
3. you eaten there but never realised it was so good

So therefore, until social media used by business becomes real which inturn becomes personal… then ____

Which brings me to the point of the superfluity point of the superfluous.

Because of the security of anonymity that the internet offers, relationships are often superfluous. Not always, but often enough.

We haven't even talked about the demographics using social media and how some people still prefers the good ol real world person to person, man to man engagement. B2B, B2C

Brand Share, relationship building. Yes I agree. Depends on how you use it. Again, the bottomline is a major concern. Really a catch 22 situation huh?

Social media is really here to stay for a long long time. The one who wins would be the one who uses it to their advantage in a innovative way. Who manages to milk $$ out of the business model.

Ps: In fact I am arguing against the compelling reasons but so many factors surface in my mind that I am not able to write coherently. I have a niggling feeling that some of my points are right and fortunately not entirely so, enlighten me please.

regards
cow

EDIT Ps: In fact I am ***NOT*** arguing against the compelling reasons but so many factors surface in my mind that I am not able to write coherently. I have a niggling feeling that some of my points are right and fortunately not entirely so, enlighten me please.

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I'm sorry but I couldn't disagree more with this post, I'm also confused at some of the comments below but we'll leave that for another time…

1. Low cost.

The cost is time and that is not in unlimited supply for most organizations especially small businesses. Everything has a cost and social media can be extremely expensive, meanwhile some businesses will get a better bang for their buck utilizing SEO/SEM, e-mail.

2. It's limitless.

Limitless is the exception not the rule. Companies that rise to social media fame are few and far between, however the success stories are all found and repeated throughout the blogosphere. Check out the survivorship or confirmation bias on Wikipedia.

3. Everyone is in on it.

C'mon… Does this really pass as business strategy these days? Everyone was doing the subprime lending, does that mean it is good for business? If everyone is doing it, you should be doing something different, preferably better. And it may have nothing to do with Facebook or Twitter.

low cost – financial cost. Most start-ups lack financial resources rather than time

limitless – those that are widely publicized are indeed successful. but that doesn't mean small businesses aren't successful when using social media

everyone's on it – competitors are on it. and that's why you should too. the differentiation is on how one uses social media to improve business. I agree that it may not have anything to do with fb or twitter. the choice of tool depends on audience and goals.

Thanks for responding Willis. Although I agree some startups may have more time than financial resources, I thought this post was for any business. Most worthwhile up and coming start up's probably have founders that are “social media savy” already, and hence wouldn't need advice to convince them they should take part in it.

Once again, limitless is the exception not the rule. If you have worked consulting closely with businesses you will see there are tons of limits.

If everyone's doing something it doesn't mean they are getting anything out of it, and it doesn't mean you should do it too. Apple's not doing it, and they are doing just fine. Companies should spend more time trying to be remarkable and less time trying to figure out how to jump onto the social media bandwagon.