How Social Media Can Hurt Your Business
Social media. The wondrous tool that has revolutionized the way the world communicates. Savvy marketers recognized its power early on. Social media agencies were formed. Social media “gurus” emerged. Everyone dove in; even mom and pop businesses created business pages. After all, who could resist the instant gratification all those thumbs-up, shares and comments from real people in real time? It was seductive.
But today social media for marketing is a roller coaster. What works one day doesn’t work the next. Platforms disappear (Myspace), threaten to disappear (Google+) and new ones launch in herds. Twitter is still trying to figure out its revenue model. LinkedIn seems to want to be a blogging platform. Facebook (the choice of 71% of U.S. Internet users) erects higher and higher barriers to keep our marketing from reaching even our most loyal fans. And it goes on.
How Social Media Can Hurt Your Business
If you focus 90% of your marketing efforts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. you are essentially giving up control of your company’s visibility to someone making decisions in a boardroom somewhere who doesn’t have your best interest at heart. And that’s dangerous for your brand.
Don’t get me wrong. Social media is amazing. It’s been pivotal for the success of my business and the clients that I work with. I say use it! But use it as a TOOL. Use it as a tool to increase awareness of your brand; use it to find your ideal customers; use it to advertise your events, your services and your products.
But first and foremost, use social media to get your ideal customers to your website.
Your website is only thing on the Internet where you have complete control. I speak to at least one entrepreneur every day who spends 90%-100% of his or her marketing time and money on social media, but who hasn’t made an update to their website for years. Your website is the window into your business for the world to see. Shouldn’t it come first?
My advice: as soon as you finish reading this article go to your website and take a good look at it through the eyes of one of your ideal customers. Do you know in an instant that you’re in the right place? Do you spot unique benefits with no effort at all? Is it easy to navigate? Even on a phone? Does it convey trust? If your answers are no, it’s time to divert some of your time and energy not to testing the newest and sexiest social platform, but instead to your website.
Don’t let social media take your attention away from the only thing that you actually own on the Internet: your website. Stay in control to grow your business!
I’d love to hear your thoughts:
Betsy
Thanks Betsy for the reminder. Someone was telling a group of women entrepreneurs that social media is “rented real estate” and that if FB for example, felt someone went ‘outside the boundaries”, the business page could be “in jail” and the page would be lost, but our webpages are not rented, but ours. Your advice drives that home.
Hi Pam,
As social media becomes more and more complicated and the platforms more and more revenue driven, it’s more important than before. Stay tuned, I’ll be on top of this for you!
Betsy