Brands and organizations are increasingly turning to social media to support their positioning, marketing, and communication strategies. The use of social media as a channel often shows impressive results, but disappointments are more common than desired. Disappointments due to the lack of results and insufficient support within the organization. Is it essential to incorporate social media into your online marketing strategy? Why are a significant number of organizations, often more traditional B2B organizations, still not convinced?
Online Marketing
10 reasons NOT to use social media
10 reasons NOT to use social media
These questions seemed interesting enough to delve deeper into. We approach this from our practical experience, where organizations tell us about their resistance to this medium. Below, we list the most common arguments we hear.
1. Social media doesn’t fit our organization.
If none of your customer”s, relationships, potential future customers, or suppliers are on social media, you should question whether you need to be there. But who can truly say yes to this?
2. It’s impossible to determine the effectiveness or ROI of social media.
Like other marketing activities, it can sometimes be difficult to determine the ROI or effectiveness of social media efforts. However, the perception that it’s harder than with traditional media channels is incorrect; it’s actually easier.
3. Negative comments or stories will damage our brand.
There’s a fear that a Facebook page or Twitter account will allow customers or suppliers to express negative opinions about the organization or its employees. Often, companies don’t realize that this can happen without their cooperation or consent—someone simply creates an account or hashtag!
4. Social media is only for B2C organizations.
People confuse the quicker adoption of social media by consumer brands with a natural affinity for the channel. The belief is that the ‘personal’ focus of social media makes it unsuitable for business communication.
5. It takes a lot of time, time that I already don’t have.
Like all efforts, social media takes time. It’s important to weigh the decision and determine if it’s worth the investment, a clear understanding of the possibilities, and consulting your network can clarify this.
6. I want to keep business and personal life separate.
This one-size-fits-all approach is commonly heard; I don’t call my clients and relationships outside of work hours, so why would I invite them on social media!
7. It’s just a fad.
To the uninitiated, social media may seem like a sudden fad, and like all fads, short-lived. However, social media has been developing on the internet for years, and the current landscape is just the latest version, with more to come.
8. We lack the knowledge and experience
Often cited when organizations realize the inevitability of using social media but can’t find the right approach.
9. I already know my entire market; I don’t need it to reach my customers.
Many businesses in B2B markets think they perfectly understand the business landscape, often correctly. But they are mistaken if they think this landscape will remain the same over the next 10 years, just as it has changed over the past 10 years.
10. We don’t have content
This is impossible. A company always has content in the form of products, video recordings, customer stories or testimonials, fun facts about the organization, etc. Why is this reason cited; because businesses think they don’t have enough content to be active daily. Firstly, this isn’t necessary, and secondly, there’s certainly something to report daily if it fits your organization.
Although we generally advocate for the use of social media, in daily practice, it’s simply the case that not everything can be tackled at once. Without knowledge, patience, attention, strategy, and good content, we indeed advise against the use of social media. Casualness leads to disappointment in most cases. If an organization is willing to invest enough and be patient, social media can be a fantastic tool for dialogue and success. In practice, we also see that one of the above reasons is often cited out of fear of the unknown.
Getting started with content marketing? Read: The basics of good content marketing
In conclusion, we find social media an important communication channel, but like with other channels, you need to understand it before you can determine if it fits your organization. If you exclude this channel out of ignorance and fear, you’re shortchanging yourself and your organization. To quote Peter Ustinov:
“If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done,”
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