Is Your Company Fearful of Social Media Talk?

Is social media noise making you uncomfortable in your position?

Yesterday, I attended a meeting with some other business professionals and I listened to a marketing director talk about his fear of “social media talk”. I guess from my standpoint, I see social media as just a channel for people to express their point of views.

I guess if I followed as many people as I could and tried to understand their rants, complaints and opinions, I might be a little shaken too. Too many people see social media as this big group of millenials or people who are not working very hard. Also, the people who are frightened the most, are those people who are standing back and reacting to information being shared. If you want to make a difference in the social media sphere, you need to know how to approach it and maximize the value it presents to your company.

First off, look at social media differently. Contrary to what you might read, social media is not all about connections. There is much more to it. It’s a great source of information and a way to learn more about a particular industry.

Here are some examples:

• Follow local news stories by following your local media
• Follow national news stories by looking at information from news sources you trust
• Search out topics and key words on social media sites and see if a market exists or not.
• Check out Linkedin Profiles and look for advantageous people to connect with in respective industries and organizations.
• If you look at social media as a numbers game, you will find yourself connected to people who do not care about your company, your prducts/services.

In addition, companies that are fearful of misinformationposted online are not taking steps to create their own content. If you want to have an effective presence with social media, you need to have a content strategy that incorporates blogs, articles and other helpful information. This way you are also producting content for others to read and you begin to build your own presence online. This is very important and will help you build credibility.

• Start by updating your website content on a regular basis
• Consider adding a company blog
• Get out there personally and connect professionally with other marketing professionals as well as your industry contacts.
• Give people a reason to visit your site and read your content.

The whole “fear” approach to social media is quite common for company executives. Too many people see social media as this big threat from the consumer world. This is really a debilitating approach and a reason to stay away from social media for many companies.

The companies who invest their time and resources in creating a solid content strategy and show up on a consistent basis on social media are the companies who find success. It is not an easy process, but it can be a rewarding one once the process is defined and

Those companies who are realizing the benefits of social media are those companies that are making time to tell their own stories and make connections with the right people. This process creates not only good clientele but a good mix of advocates for your company who will share your story. This is where the real win occurs.

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