No matter how ubiquitous the use of social media is and how
entities like Forbes encourage its adaptation and use in business, it cannot be
denied that many organizations are still fearful about the whole social
shebang. The reluctance lies on the leaders and managers of these companies.
According to the current
Social
Readiness Assessment by Gartner, business leaders are divided between the
social media ready and the social media challenged. This attitude spreads to small
business owners and managers too.
Note: Clicking the link above will take you to the
assessment to find out if you’re social ready or getting there.
The assessment categorizes 6 attitudes leaders take towards
social – Fusing, Forging, Formulating (being the three positive attitudes),
Flippant, Fearful, and Folly (being the three negative attitudes). Executives
and managers don’t consider social media as folly with only 1% responding it to
be so, however, 35% of them feel fearful towards social media.
So Many Examples Of Fail That Leaders Are Threatened
Business executives and managers don’t want to be like the
brands that failed big-time in social media and became a worldwide, internet
laughstock. They’d rather embrace being a wallflower than risk a marketing
misstep in the form of a social media error and lay that failure bare for the
whole internet to see. They feel it would be very difficult to recover their
brand image and reputation after that.
Their minds are littered with so many real-life instances of
huge brands having social media “fail” moments that it masks the positive role
of social media in marketing and brand building. Most organization heads still
view social media as a threat – a threat to
employee productivity, company security, privacy, management authority, and/or
regulatory compliance.
The Danger in Fear
The feeling of being fearful towards social media, of being
threatened by it, brings a particular trouble to many organizations and
businesses big and small. More often than not, companies that take a fearful
attitude towards social media don’t take a specific stance – they brush off the
marketing strategy or set it aside while they’re yet to make up their minds
while discouraging and going to great lengths as prohibiting its use by
employees in the office.
Now while this approach greatly reduces the chances of leaks
and undesirable behavior, it also hugely mutes any
business value
obtained from engaging in social media.
What Social Media Marketing Really Is
The willingness of small businesses to forego the positive
resul
ts of social media in branding and marketing, their
fearful reluctance to adapt social media strategies in marketing can be
overcome by getting back on track and putting on a clearer head on the issue.
A lot of the confusion that ultimately leads to fear stems
from the concept that social media is advertising. While that may be true, it
holds a very small part in the whole bucket. Social media is first and foremost
PUBLIC RELATIONS.
The power that drives a social media marketing strategy
and/or tactic is the people. Without understanding people, any social strategy
adapted by any company is deemed to fail.
Getting Twitter followers, Facebook
fans, YouTube views and other social communities is just half the story. The
other half is the most essential part and that is,
connecting with these
people.
