Victoria Advocate published an interesting article yesterday focusing on how Business Owners Can Control Social Media. “Social media is a business reality. Whether your business has a Facebook page or it Tweets or sends out Instagrams: Your business is out there,” the article, written by Lisa Barr, the senior business adviser at the University of Houston, states. In today’s market, this is more than just an admission of reality – it’s a required necessity.
Up until the late 90’s, there were primarily three methods of advertising available for businesses – print media, television, and radio. The advent and increasing availability of the internet opened up a wide array of opportunities for businesses to increase their brand awareness through the development of websites, targeted ads, and e-mail. The flourishing platforms of social media can provide a powerful tool for businesses to branch out and reach their customer base – that is, if used wisely.
Victoria Advocate shrewdly points out the inherent dangers that can be prevalent in social media. “The problem with social media posts is the viewer doesn’t really know if the posts are truthful. A picture taken at a certain location may or may not be taken at that location. A competitor could sabotage your business using social media…So whether anyone stops and asks if the people posting these pictures and stories are credible, these few people unfortunately have the ability to affect the success of your business.” Lisa Barr’s article offers several methods to keep such offending practices under control and it all culminates to one basic approach that can encourage overall social media success – being proactive.
“To be proactive with social media and your business, you might want to hire an employee or even your child to be your social media manager.” Although I would argue against the imprudence of engaging a child to be in charge of your business’ social media campaign, appointing an employee as a dedicated social media manager can be a step in the right direction to assure consistent output and oversight for your online brand. It is a folly to assume that just because social media is a popular medium for young people that they would automatically be experts at manipulating and branding your business efficiently. Similarly, the commitment cannot simply be levied to an employee with little knowledge of generating the proper following to ensure a successful venture.
Victoria Advocate goes on to claim that “…according to a USA Today article by Oliver St. John, 61 percent of small businesses don’t see a return on investment on social media activities and say Facebook is the hardest social media network to maintain. Nevertheless, you can’t ignore it, and you must be proactive with your social media endeavors.” Many of these failures are due to a major oversight concerning the proper applications of social media to advocate your business. A lucrative social media campaign goes beyond just generating tweets, Facebook posts, and blogs on a consistent basis. Part of that involves interaction via comments, social synergy, and online networking – an endeavor that can be time-consuming and possibly even counterproductive given a business’ available resources. It may be worth exploring other avenues, services, or internet marketing experts that specialize solely on social media branding and internet management to help establish your business prosperity online.
Please check out the original article on Victoria Advocate for more.
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