Up to this date, in 2018, there are many businesses that are still afraid to fully adopt social media and make it an integral component in their marketing strategies. Some use it to keep pace. Others, driven by their businesses’ bottom-line, believe social media does not bring in immediate results, hence it’s a waste of time.
Well, as Rob Coyne stated in his article in Marketing Tech, “The risk of not being on social far outweighs the risks of being on these channels, and it’s well and truly time for executives to understand and embrace it.”
Here below, a summary of the article that may help you understand the importance of social media and why it is the number one equalizer for any brand:
Nowadays, social media is the cornerstone of modern marketing strategies for all types of organizations.
When it comes to social, there are two types of businesses: an organization that does it because it feels it ‘has to’ to keep pace, and the ‘socially mature’ business that does it because it truly understands social media engagement, and its value on the bottom line.
In order to properly use social and benefit from it, we should convince executives of the value of social media as a first step:
Breaking down barriers to social adoption
Some executives prefer to avoid social platforms because they fear the risk of posting wrong contents. However, the question now, in 2018, should be: “what is the risk of not being on social?”
Companies with active social leaders are positively regarded compared to those with inactive leaders, since customers believe in their authenticity, approachability and transparency.
Social is also rapidly taking over market share of the media as a channel that many consumers and news outlets migrate towards.
Flex accordingly
Don’t expect to see success straight away.
In fact, building up a presence and doing it well now will pay off in the future, as the business world gradually shifts to embrace social as the norm.
Social is also a constantly evolving platform. So, do you know where the true value of social lies? Well, it lies in allowing the brand to stay agile and adapt to the market by staying up-to-date and in tune with customer perceptions.
Show and sell
Show executives the power of social media.
For example, build platforms on social listening that executives can monitor themselves on a daily basis, from mentions of brands and products to customer conversation, industry news and competitors.
You can also demonstrate how integrating it as a core component of operations is vital to social maturity, since content shared by employees gets more engagement than corporate content.
If you are still not convinced, check out this blog post I wrote a while back, highlighting and dispelling the misconceptions and myths of social media marketing that actually held back our clients and many other businesses alike.
Terry Hamod – Head of Communications at Barb
Article link: https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/apr/24/why-social-1-equaliser-brands/