Two Ways Avoiding Social Media Can Harm Your Business

Over the last month, we’ve detailed some of the pitfalls businesses can make via their social media channels. We’ve seen epic meltdowns, and silly missteps, but on the whole, the advantages of social media greatly outweigh the negative connotations. After all, social flops are easy Internet fodder, but your eye should be on the real prize: increased ROI. By ignoring social media, you’re actively pushing your company further from customer relevance. So let’s look at two ways avoiding social media can hurt your business and let’s do the opposite.

We’ll start with the obvious:

You may think social media is a fad. You may think it doesn’t apply to your business. You may think purple is your favorite number. The point: social media isn’t going away, at least not for some time. So to continually harp on the tried and true, I’m grumpy and I disagree with the ‘new’  POV is played out, so let’s open our minds first.

The truth is, social media hasn’t altered the foundation of marketing or changed the way businesses produce products for customers. It’s not a scary platform that’s ruining our culture. What it is doing is facilitating connections around the world that bring your business or brand into the homes of the public like never before—a blessing for most… a curse for some.

What many business owners don’t understand is that stubborn silence within your network can be just as harmful as a public blunder. Think of it like this, if you’re a small business owner with a product that hasn’t hit mainstream audiences, the first thing many information-aged prospects will do is research your product. If they see that there isn’t any information on the Internet about what you’re offering, they’ll be less inclined to purchase. Who wouldn’t? 

To take it further, what if someone is posting negative reviews or defaming your business practices through a public forum? Just because you don’t use a social media platform for your business doesn’t mean others aren’t—every minute, of every hour, of every day. And if you can’t respond or clarify the situation, you might as well wave a white flag for all to see.

Engagement, Engagement, Engagement… Engagement.

Overstated? Yes. Undervalued?H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks Yes. 

Why spend the time establishing a social presence if you don’t plan on engaging your audience? There are almost 8 new viewers on the Internet every second, shouldn’t you aim for some semblance of a first impression?  What did I say above, it’s about “facilitating connections around the world?” While many might say that’s the focal point, it isn’t—not entirely. After all, likes don’t translate into ROI. But a higher Google Rank does.

The way social media is used differs from person to person, however, the tools used throughout are the same. Think of every new piece of content you produce for your brand as a soldier in your “sales army.” Each soldier helps to strengthen the overall force of your company’s online presence. Google ranks your army against other company’s armies and whoever has the more engaging, trustworthy content survives. The ultimate prize? The top result of Google search results.

After all, 94% of people turn to search engines when researching and of those 94%, 75% of them don’t click past the first page of Google’s search results. That’s a compelling reason to improve the quality and quantity of your brand’s content production like, today. There are thousands of quality sources, and companies, and products that are buried under the canopy of Google results, but if no one can see it, the content doesn’t matter. 

What you get when you engage with your customers is a bond, which is almost impossible without the use of social media. It’s a way consumers can connect with brands on a personal level and the more they positively connect or reference your brand, the better.