subject: 10 things Companies Must Understand about Social Media [print this page] 10 things Companies Must Understand about Social Media
Social media is gaining in popularity and therefore more and more companies are looking towards social media to promote their product or service. However, over time it has been established that social media advertising involves a lot of thought and is not as easy as it might seem to us. Here are some of the main reasons why some company's attempt to advertise using social media have failed:
1. Social media is not just another advertising option: This is a common misconception. It is one thing to put an idea out there and hope for customers and an entirely different thing to be constantly in touch with the customers, as is expected on a social media.
2. Guarantee on results: The social media is not yet in a position to indicate the returns on investment when companies enter into this zone. There are many determinate and will largely depend on the user's interaction and understanding on the page.
3. Ready for Social media: Before companies dive into social media as an option to pursue, it is very important that people first asses if the medium itself is ready in today's market. The truth is that it is not. True social media falls somewhere between marketing, PR, communications, content production and web development. Therefore, cannot be used as the only advertising medium.
4. Misunderstanding the reach of social media: Social media is global, while a company's product or service may be limited to only certain geographies. Therefore, before companies take the plunge into social media, it is important to analyze the audiences they intend to target.
5. Being available is not enough, search must be effective: Being on the social media is not half as important as being a searchable option to prospective customers. More often than not, companies put their details out on the internet and forget that they need to do a lot of coding to ensure that their option pops out in the first few results when a prospective customer searches.
6. Social media is not an advertisement: It is, on the other hand, a long term investment of time, money and effort. When companies advertise or promote a product or service on a social media, they must be open to keep at it every day; every hour if required. Only because the nature of this medium is that it is short lived and requires constant attention.
7. Execution of the idea: It is very important to execute the idea perfectly on a social media. If the page loads slowly, or has unnecessary content, then automatically the customer looses interest and patience on the page or the product and will quickly over on to other projects.
8. Social media is the first point of contact: This means that if the content is not impressive in the first glance, then the company has already lost its customer. Therefore, it becomes more important to keep the content impressive and update it on a regular basis.
9. Make existing customers happy: Before companies take the plunge into social media, they must ensure that their customers are content with the product or service and that they might even contribute to the medium. Social media is primarily dependent on word-of-mouth and a bad review can have immediate effects on the product or service.
10. Technology: When companies decide to use the social media to campaign for their product they must be sure that they are using the most effective technology to do it. In today's world a lot of technologies get sidelined before even having a shot at popularities. Therefore, it's important for companies to stay updated with the kind of media the customer is using the most.
