Why Social Media May Be Hurting Your Business

I think social media has reached a tipping point and has created some bad habits for marketers. Too often it is viewed as a “quick fix” for a communication strategy. 

Want to form a new league?  Send out an email. Oh yeah, put it up on Facebook too.  Want to get the word out about your Saturday night music and bowling program? Email all the 18 to 34 yr olds out there. Don’t forget to twitter them if you can.

I don’t know about you, but I think this quick reliance on social media has numbed us to really understanding our customers. 

I mean, if you spoke to 20 of your customers and asked them “personally” about the programs you run or how to communicate it better, I think you would get better information and a deeper understanding of your customers’ motivations.

Secondly, Facebook and Twitter, the new kids on the block may not even exist in the near future. Wasn’t too long ago that AOL and My Space were entrenched entities.  I’ll bet they didn’t think they would fall out of favor so quickly. Where are they now?  

And what about more upstarts like Pinterest, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, Open Table, Groupon and on and on that are competing with Facebook?  Point is if you want your business to last longer than these entities, that come and go, then don’t JUST rely on social media as the ONLY marketing strategy you have  Too many proprietors are ONLY relying on social media. ONLY!

Here’s another problem - according to an AP Poll - over half of Americans think Facebook is a passing fad and one out of three Facebook users NOW spend less time on the site than a year ago.  Further 4 out of 5 Facebook users have NEVER bought a product or service as a result of a Facebook advertisement.

Now I am not saying to drop your social media programs.  But I am saying that social media on its own cannot do the job of other effective platforms like public relations, your website, old media (which is still effective) and one on one personal communications to your customers in your center.

Bottom line: Think synergy. Think leverage. Think multiple streams of communication.

Think about it.