We all know what social media can do for business. Let’s just note down some points what social media cannot do; what social media is not.
1. Not about Social Networking Sites
Social Media Marketing is not about making accounts at different social networks and engaging with customers. Alternatively, the time and efforts invested in social media doesn’t pay off always. It’s the best example of slow and steady winning the race.
- 2. Not about a replacement or stand alone
While Social Media Marketing is likely to make a difference to your marketing efforts, it cannot replace marketing and PR altogether. Rather, it works as a support medium to your marketing plan.
- 3. Not about technology, you or us
Social Media is not about a particular person or a technology. It’s about the brand. Social Media Marketing is to be done, to increase the audience engagement more and grow the brand with some good marketing strategies.
- 4. Not a one-stop solution
Social Media Marketing itself can’t perform any magic but can surely helps in getting word-of-mouth promotions out. One cannot expect social media to turn ineffective products or services into fantastic ones.
- 5. Not about marketing/promotion/contest only
Social Media Marketing is not about running Facebook or Twitter contests. It is not about marketing your Facebook and Twitter page by getting maximum ‘likes’ or ‘followers’. If the product/service is not likeable, what is the point in paying money and creating a façade? If your product/service won’t be strong, how exactly do you expect social media marketing help your brand become big?
- 6. Not about immediate ROI
Don’t expect social media to show immediate results. It’s not an overnight process. Let things take shape slowly. The biggest problem here is, that most of the people indulge in is the belief that Social Media Marketing can directly and magically help them with lot of sales. But Social Media is not a great booster of sales.
- 7. Not something you set and forget
Social media is not something you start and then forget. It requires a lot of planning, a good strategy to work out. Social Media sounds interesting and funny and be assured that it is taken seriously just like any other marketing effort. Social Media requires focused strategy, consistent effort and careful tracking.
- 8. Not all about customer service
Social media is not about having complaints solved at networking sites. It’s not all about online customer service. You might have heard about companies who ignore complaints on social networks and had their reputation take a big beating. But that’s again one of the clever ways of providing customer service via the social medium. Fact is, merely having proactive customer care service isn’t going to change life around for your business.
- 9. Not a recruitment channel
One interesting trend with social media is the increase in announcements about job opportunities. A lot of people mistake social media as a job portal but hoping that social media will take over the recruitment function. At best, social media can help spread the word about the opportunities and establish an initial contact with candidates.
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