Social Media: Is It Useless For Business To Business Marketing?

I’m sure you have read the facts about social media. In theory, one would think that with so many users, the potential to bring great exposure to your business and gain new customers would be overwhelming… right?

While although I think there may be a benefit to some industries, for the most, I think it it is really just a huge waste of time, resources… and expectations!

Do you know who is most mislead about social media?… It’s the ones who DO NOT use it. Why? Because if they did, they would quickly see social media’s informal culture. Now, I know, I can expect heat from some of the people who work in the industry, but who are they fooling? Ask those people what they use to gauge their “success” in social media campaigns.

For many people, social media is a way to connect with friends on Facebook, or share a few quirky ideas on Twitter… and show off one’s follower count on LinkedIn. Others use social media to make a name for themselves, while promoting a product or service… as do many bloggers.

Let’s dig deeper into some of the sensationalism of Social Media.

Social Media Sensationalism

As I was fishing around company webiste, I came across some of these facts abdout social media:

Social Media is Not a Trend

Social media is here to stay. Below are some statistics that prove this point:

• 127 million people (57% of Internet users) visited a social networking site at least once a month in 2010.
• It is estimated that 164.9 million people will be using social networks on a regular basis by 2014.
  • In 2014, 56.8% of 55- to 64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly; 37.9% of seniors 65 and up will be social network users.
• More than 55.5 million adults in the U.S. visit social networks at least once a month.
• The age of twitter users is slightly higher than most other social networking services.
• The leading contender of social networking sites is Facebook with 500 million active users
  • Many of its users are 35 and older.
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• • More than 240,000 small businesses participate

In one section, where there is a mock Q&A about the topic it reads:

“I think it will waste my time.” 

This will only come true if you let it. Once your business profile is created, a social network won’t require much of your time to maintain.

What’s Wrong With This Message?

1) Social Media is hard work! — Try connecting a blog and/or your small business with social media. It takes a good while to integrate all of that… and once you are done, there needs to be updated content, and interactive areas, and responses, and inquiries, etc… Won’t require much of your time to maintain? — yeah, right!

2) People need People — Sure there is always a minimal level of networking on social media sites, particularly for job seekers, but people often use social media for personal reasons like baby pictures, sharing ideas on pop culture, or dating… as a means to “escape”… not business.

3) The Demographic of Business Owners — While there are a lot of young CEO’s, business owners, and entrepreneurs, the majority of this group spends little time online, most likely has never set up a user profile, and would prefer to have a young assistant take care of that.

4) Business is about relationships — The internet is often perceived as being very cold and anonymous. Unless your business is set up to be primarily online, business is still done the old-fashioned way —on the phone and in person!

5) No one will seek out what they’re not looking for! — Businesses are not looking for answers on Facebook and Twitter. Even when they discover you, the likelihood of them being your local customer is slim.  Many businesses, particularly the one I look for have to use a more direct approach to educate and advise business owners of our products, services, and overall concept.

6) I love the statistics — until you truly monitor the user’s online experience: Video games, Online dating, ESPN, Netflix, Porn… hmmm… doesn’t appear very official or business-like. Does it?

In Closing

"A Facebook Fan Page? Uh, sure!"

While in theory, social media integration into you business sounds tempting, the reality is that internet use during the work day is discouraged. And rarely will much business-related occur after hours.

Plus, many business owners wouldn’t know the first thing about even basic marketing techniques.

In addition, the internet is doubling in size every few weeks. How are they going to find you? Perhaps your efforts need to be more targeted toward SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING?

Better to stick with what works best: 1) A Phone Call and 2) Dropping In Unnanounced.

At least, that way, they have to address you.

Even traditional forms of marketing (mail / e-mail) are useless for what we do! — hint: Quack!