Is Social Media Undervalued?

On almost every level people are talking about social media.  Business has jumped on board harnessing it as a marketing or branding tool, to increase sales or expand their customer base.  Although there is nothing unusual with this, it takes more than ‘likes’, ‘followers’ or ‘views’ to be successful on social media.  To begin with, it takes development, planning and effort.  The key skills for businesses are listening, conversation and interaction while at the same time producing a valuable experience for customers, and reinforcing the brand positioning.

Social media is undervalued in business.  This can be for any number of reasons – it is not widely understood, ROI can be challenging or it is being used solely as one way marketing channel.  Most of the time social media is placed within the marketing department and this is not necessarily a problem.  However, social media requires more than a marketing department to work.

Social media has a very ‘social’ element that is the basis of its success – participation, community and connecting people.  Social media is also cultural and technological.  So unless business understands that social media is more than marketing, it will always be undervalued.  In order for business to be successful on social media, business needs to get that social media is more than marketing and they need to value this.

More people are using social media every day.  They are connecting, sharing information and having conversations.  For the majority of individuals social media is a valid channel to communicate.  It is altering the way we interact, how we connect, how we search for and receive information and the way we make decisions.  These impacts are being felt across business in ways that we are struggling to understand.  Culturally it is shifting the way we communicate.

It is this communication shift which is altering how consumers interact with business.  That is arguably why marketing on social media in a one way direction is not very effective.  And because some businesses don’t know where else to place social media other than the marketing department, social media will always be undervalued because it will never be understood.

To make the most of social media it is essential that business embrace it and see it as an opportunity to engage consumers.  This doesn’t mean marketing to users, it means communicating with them.

Those businesses that don’t attempt to understand and connect with its users will ignore one of the most significant developments in technology, media and communications.

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Tags: social Media • social media communications • Social Media Education • Social media is cultural • Social Media Marketing • Social media more than technology