Social media... just one sliver of your marketing strategy that takes up a substantial amount of time and resources. We're breaking down the pros and cons of maintaining social media accounts for a business in any industry; there truly are both!
Pros
- Connect with your customers and build rapport
- Social channels like Twitter and Facebook give you an easy messaging service to message back and forth with customers and leads. Establish a relationship, build the rapport and trust that both parties want and need from each other.
- Quick conversations allow you to get to know your target audience, their pain points, what they want and don't want, and even discover what they need before they realize it. Solving a problem for your customers happens by getting to know them and their business, and using social is a great way to do that.
- Discover leads and new opportunities
- The whole point of social media at its beginning was to discover new people around the world and also meet new friends in your area, right? That same idea can translate simply for businesses, too. Use social to find new opportunities to sell or a new market to explore! Whether you target a specific industry with hashtags or ads or target friends of friends, each social platform has powerful ways to discover new audiences through their demographic targeting methodology.
- The whole point of social media at its beginning was to discover new people around the world and also meet new friends in your area, right? That same idea can translate simply for businesses, too. Use social to find new opportunities to sell or a new market to explore! Whether you target a specific industry with hashtags or ads or target friends of friends, each social platform has powerful ways to discover new audiences through their demographic targeting methodology.
- Upsell your current customers
- Running social campaigns that specifically target current customers is a strong upsell tactic that should definitely be leveraged via social media. Whether you're advertising on Twitter and Facebook and targeting specific people through list segmentation or running a contest and inviting current customers to 'like' your social pages to enter, the options are endless.
- Running social campaigns that specifically target current customers is a strong upsell tactic that should definitely be leveraged via social media. Whether you're advertising on Twitter and Facebook and targeting specific people through list segmentation or running a contest and inviting current customers to 'like' your social pages to enter, the options are endless.
- Be available for customer service issues
- How do you handle customer service issues in-house? You probably maintain some sort of ticketing system, right? If you're lucky, it's quick and efficient and leaves your customers feeling satisfied with the service they receive. Although some businesses can't budget for this type of service, and social is a great way to support customers in real-time who need assistance.
- How do you handle customer service issues in-house? You probably maintain some sort of ticketing system, right? If you're lucky, it's quick and efficient and leaves your customers feeling satisfied with the service they receive. Although some businesses can't budget for this type of service, and social is a great way to support customers in real-time who need assistance.
- Build brand awareness and exposure
- Last but definitely not least, social media provides ample opportunity to build your brand. Making yourself reputable and searchable as a company online is crucial in the digital world we live in, and those who don't are simply creating roadblocks for themselves.
- In doing so, you can ask your followers opinions on new branding, have followers vote on specials or promotions you host each month, participate in giveaways, etc. Creating buy-ins like this make your social followers feel a loyalty towards your business that wouldn't otherwise exist.
Cons
- PR is everything
- One poorly planned social campaign can ruin your credibility online. Be careful when creating content by being hyper-aware of your audience and the context of your posts. The majority of social mishaps happen because of a single employee, but that mistake is the reflection of the brand as a whole, so post with caution if you're sharing content that is cheeky or sensitive. The response might be different than what you expect.
- One poorly planned social campaign can ruin your credibility online. Be careful when creating content by being hyper-aware of your audience and the context of your posts. The majority of social mishaps happen because of a single employee, but that mistake is the reflection of the brand as a whole, so post with caution if you're sharing content that is cheeky or sensitive. The response might be different than what you expect.
- Your business is in the spotlight... good or bad
- If customers have a bad experience with your employees, product or service, social media is likely one of the first places they'll go to tell the world all about it. This vulnerability should be taken seriously, and bad reviews should be monitored consistently and always responded to. The worst thing you can do as a business is ignore bad reviews or complaints about you on your business pages, where prospects and customers can see. They're watching to see how you handle upset customers too.
