Old fashioned type organisation leaders will always tell you that social media does not impact his or her business in any way shape or form, positively or negatively. The way they believe a business can move in an upward direction is through simple yet effective face to face communication. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that as modern technology continues to advance at rapid rates, so does the success of businesses who take the gamble in using social media as a stepping stone going forward.
As we all should be aware of by now, business grows through consistent and effective communication. As key businessmen continue to ignore social media and deny its everlasting capabilities, they are putting their organisation at a risk of becoming insignificant within the market place. Studies have continuously shown that social media has the potential to (when used correctly) increase annual sales, supply key information and facts to key stakeholders, and more importantly helps to considerably strengthen the relationship between the business at hand and its respective customers. And the more and more frequent a shop, store or brand conveys their messages through social media, the stronger the relationships become, and thus the greater the impact can become! In saying all of this, why is it that huge corporate business consistently become reluctant or completely ignore the idea of growing their business through the use of social media?
Some people believe that social media encourages customers of a brand to behave badly toward the company at hand. Chief cutomer experience designer Jeff Wilson believes that social media makes it easy for the general public (regular customers or not) to bully or speak poorly of a business, promoting bullying.
“Social Media is Creating Bad Customers. Why? It’s simple… because people deep down are bullies or at the very least indifferent to bullying. Add to this how easily the social media public is influenced by a mob mentality and you get recipes for McDStory after McDStory”
The “#McDStory” he is referring to here is a hashtag used on Twitter whereby disgruntled customers told the world about their poor experience/s with the McDonalds franchise customer service. The fact he says that deep down EVERYONE is a bully is completely wrong, and to be frank ignorant to think so. And this “mob mentality” Wilson speaks of? That is what large businesses such as McDonalds are for. FEEDBACK! Whether it be negative or positive, from one person or a million people. Feedback is imperative in the growth, expansion and most importantly improvement of any franchise, big or small. And this is just one of many aspects which makes social media so effective for small or large businesses.
Social media provides a fantastic platform for the general public to voice their opinions on issues that matter to them. As well as this, it provides a brilliant opportunity for organisations to communicate vitally important information to their customers, whether this be their mission and goals or new and unique products that is now available for purchase. No matter how you look at it, businesses should be utilizing social media and its endless amounts of benefits, as it can significantly improve their business both now, and into the future.
Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/julietbarbara/2012/11/11/is-social-media-bad-for-business/
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/highlevel-business-impact-social-media-38816.html
Social Media Tactics 152 