Social networking and social media can be seen as threating to many people. Threating because of the fear of the unknown but Jacob Morgan from Chess Media Group put these fears into perspective when he posed these two questions:
“If I told you that many of your customers and prospects interacted and communicated in the social space would you invest in having a presence there?”
“What if I told you that you would never know you made a single direct dollar off of any of those customers and prospects in the social space, but you knew that they were still there, would you still invest?”
It’s as if we are being told a majority of potential customers are at point X but we have the choice to go to them or stay right where we are. In either scenario, there is no promise of attracting customers; but isn’t it part of true Service Excellence to make your services available and accessible to potential clientele? People are using technology, the Internet, and all outlets of social media on a heavy and continual basis so to put it into a different perspective, doesn’t it make more sense to go to a “busy highway” to put up your “billboard” rather than a “dusty backroad”? Social media can be a costless resource for businesses but the only thing that it does require in order to be a benefit is time.
According to the 3rd annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, there are some figures to go along with this “social media craze”:
-72% of those who responded claimed that their use of social media sites have increased their web traffic.
-62% said it improved their placement on web search engines.
-48% said they had better sales.
-Individuals that responded were two times as likely to increase their leads using social media networks.
A scholar from Simon Fraser University in Canada boldly calculates that social media may even become larger in effect than the industrial revolution in terms of its impact on society! Wow! It is undeniable that social media outlets are growing and developing everyday. It is important for businesses to jump in and increase their strength and stamina through spending time, effort, and thought on their social media activity as well as their overall web presence.
Sources:
Practical Reasons Why Businesses Need Social Media
2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael Stelzner
-Resource curated by Whitney Stewart of Service Excellence Training.
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