With all the talk about social media, including growing signs there’s growing corporate interest, in climbing on the bandwagon, a question that begs to be asked is whether there are companies that shouldn’t bother with social media.
While it makes complete sense for companies that sell to companies to embrace social media, what about companies that operate behind the scenes? Is social media a good idea within the B2B market? Should the hardware store down the street from my house be on Twitter or have a Facebook Page?
For many companies, social media is a waste of time. The size of the potential audience they want to reach, or the way their customers consume information makes social media a non-starter. Why bother investing time and energy to do something that none of your customers are interested in?
I realize this sounds like heresy given the hype surrounding social media as a “magic bullet” but social media is not a one-size-fits-all kind of activity. For the same reasons that radio ads don’t work for everyone, the same goes for social media.
For thoughts on the non-use of social media, check out this post by Our Social Times. And for those you working for a consumer-facing company, here’s a video by Socialnomics on why you should be all over social media:
2 Comments
Hey Mark,
I think it's important to start the critical conversation about social media for business and in general. You are one of the only bloggers in my feed that has ever made a such a "heretical" comment about social media. It seems that there is plenty social media Kool-Aid to go around and not a lot of critical debate surrounding it.
Matt.
I've been dealing with some of these very same issues with a few clients who are ankle-deep in the social media pool, and was struggling to put thoughts to words. You hit it right square on the head. Great insightful post, really crystallized this together for me – thank you for sharing!