Why Social Media Matters

Social media still faces some adversaries, and many will still ask “why social media matters.” So let's say I'm trying to convince a company that a 10% investment of their budget in social media is a prudent one. What reasons could win over any skeptics, and defend my position?

1. Social media creates relationships and brand evangelists.

By being able to reach consumers exactly when then need you, that excellent service can create brand evangelists that will promote your brand organically. Instead of broadcasting a message, consumers ca interact and create conversations. “Social media is the interactive, ongoing conversation you (or your brand) is having with your customers.” - Jason VanLue, FiveSeven Studios

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Carnival Case

2. Immediate crisis management at the source. Social media allows companies to become aware of crisis situations quickly. It is possible to respond directly to the source of the problem and deal with it before it escalates. Without a social media presence you cannot respond to social media threats and crises.

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Digital Crisis Management

Five Steps for Recovering from an Online Reputation Crisis

3. Development through crowd-sourcing. Social media networks are comprised of a variety of different people with many different talents. By crowd-sourcing creative tasks, you can cut costs and increase the variety of ideas. Crowd-sourced development can be administered through contests, where the prize is much cheaper than the cost of in-house development.

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Example: Victors and Spoils

Where Customers Submit, Discuss, and Vote, Ideas : "My Starbucks Ideas"

Slide Show: Developing a Corporate Listening Grid

Developing a Corporate Listening Grid

View more presentations from Marc Meyer.

4. Create Sales Social media reaches consumers directly at their point of need. It can create awareness of your product and customer service. Happy customers can serve as positive referrals for your product or service, and add 3^rd party credibility.

More: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

5. Research from the target, unfiltered. Social media provides listening posts for companies to listen to what consumers are saying about their brand. Influencers can be pointed out by the amount of friends, followers, or subscribers that are listening to them to discover who can be utilized to effectively reach the target.

More: 50 Ways to Use Social Media

And there are many more resources to continue learning and developing social media practices:

ChrisBrogan.com
EdwardBoches.com
Mashable.com