The Official
Moosylvania Blog

Social Media is perhaps one of the most rapidly-evolving and exciting technologies to hit the online space in years. What began as a way for people to stay in touch with each other has evolved into a network of real relationships, meaningful communication, and strategic alliances, all of which present an abundance of opportunities to businesses of all sizes.

However, the ever-evolving landscape of social media and the fact that it creates broad-reaching exposure and vulnerability has resulted in many businesses feeling confused and timid about incorporating social media into their marketing strategy. They often get hung up cycling through a list of objections which can ultimately lead to a wealth of missed opportunities. Because we never like to see businesses miss out on great marketing opportunities, we’re dedicating this issue of our newsletter to overcoming the top 3 social media objections:

Objection 1: We don’t have time for social media

As with any marketing strategy, social media does take time and commitment. However, ask your team this : “Do we have time to talk to existing and prospective customers about our business, services and expertise every day?” There’s a really good chance that you do, and that you already are engaging in this activity daily; you just aren’t doing it through social media yet. Social media can actually streamline your communication strategy, and ultimately save you time.

For example, there is a good chance that your business is already producing interesting content in the form of business whitepapers, videos, presentations, sales info, etc.  With social media, you have the opportunity to share that content with a multitude of prospective customers quickly and efficiently. If you aren’t leveraging the sharing power of social media to distribute your content, you’re already wasting time.

Objection 2: We can’t measure the ROI of social media

Many businesses get hung up when they try to put a dollar value on social media efforts. While many metrics can be tracked to measure the performance of a social media campaign, putting an exact dollar value on social media is tricky. Why? Because it’s difficult to assign a dollar value to a relationship. Think of it this way – If you meet someone at a networking event, trade show, or on the golf course, would you be able to assign a dollar value to that relationship? Most likely you couldn’t, but you would probably agree that the relationship has the potential to accomplish one of two things:

1. It could drive a lot of revenue to your business if the person had a positive experience.
2. It could negatively impact your bottom line if that person went around sharing their negative experience with the world and you didn’t resolve the issue quickly.

So although assigning ROI to social media can be tricky, the bottom line is that your business probably can’t afford to ignore it.

Objection 3: Our products/services aren’t the right fit for social media

This objection comes from many B2B businesses and anyone who generally thinks their product is “too boring” for the online environment. But keep one thing in mind – Your products and services are purchased by people, and it’s people, not technology, that make up social networks. People like to talk about, share experiences, and search for products and services that are relevant to their business and to their lives. This social activity is definitely not limited to B2C and CPG brands.

There is no product that is too boring for people to discuss in the online environment. If you don’t believe us, try searching twitter or the blogosphere for some very boring things – you might be surprised at the conversations that already exist around those topics.
Businesses of all types and sizes can accomplish a slew of marketing objectives through social media, and the benefits of integrating social media into your business’s marketing strategy far outweigh the risks of ignoring it. If you’re interested in discussing the next steps in making social media work for your business, or if you just want to throw some additional objections at us, we’d love to hear from you.

About the Author
Erin Steinbruegge is a Partner at The Loud Few who specializes in interactive marketing strategy. You can learn more about her here or follow her on twitter at twitter.com/steinburglar.