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by Stu Belshe on 4.27.2011 in Company News, Interactive Marketing, Trends + Surveys 0

I don’t think anyone in marketing would argue the impact that social media has had over the last few years. Even if you haven’t seen its value personally or with one of your clients, you can undoubtedly remember a recent campaign that went gangbusters and was solely driven by social media.

While most companies scramble to see where they fit into the social sphere, they often make rash decisions with the fear that time is of the essence. This leads to hundreds of thousands of Facebook pages for companies you have never heard with 50 or so “Likes” and haven’t posted an update in a few months. Most of this comes from most companies feeling like they “need to be there,” though they aren’t sure what to do once they’re there.

We are guilty of this ourselves. Our online efforts are secondary to client needs which means our social presence has, at times, lagged.

Social media suffers some of the same problems that the web as a whole suffered 10 years ago. Companies often thought once they had a website, everyone could see it, and they without a doubt would. But, as things to see online went up, individual visibility went down, and your website you figured everyone in the world would see was now a ghost town. Now, Facebook and Twitter pages suffer the same fate. There are hundreds of millions to choose from, why should anyone choose yours?

One of the first questions we ask a potential interactive client when they say they need a new website is “how will people end up there?” This usually elicits the ears up, tilted head response a dog gives you when it hears a high-pitched noise. People will almost never just “end up” there; you have to drive them there. Social platforms are no different, you need to drive users to them, and then give them a reason to return.

Not everyone needs to be on Facebook and Twitter, it’s simply not always necessary. If you’re not going to put the time and money into making the platform work to your advantage, then it’s not worth even getting started. This is why I say social media has not changed the status quo. There is huge potential for gain if you can use the platforms to your advantage, but at the same time, not being on Facebook won’t put you out of business.

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