“Social media networking” : Don’t we have better things to do?

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Many executives do not understand the power of social media networks.

And as such, your boss might be asking to you: why are you spending your time on “social networking” ? You should be plotting marketing strategies, and generate leads, and other stuff that marketers usually do.

If they ask you that question, just pop this counter-question :

How important is LinkedIn to your sales people?

He or she will probably respond that it is an important way of finding new business contacts, and information about companies and their occupation. And that for them it is a way to get in touch with people they want to meet. Or that its serves as a tool to track down occupations of people or companies to see if there is a link with business opportunities. Or that they are joining special interest groups on LinkedIn because that’s where people interact about trending topics, or even business opportunities.

Who are we to judge the importance of the different networks?

As marketers, we are not in a position to judge the importance of the social media networks our buyers are using. Yes, LinkedIn is probably more important in B2B than others, but certain people will be more active on e.a. Twitter and Facebook.

Therefor we need to be where our buyers are. If that is on Linkedin, be on Linkedin. If they are on Twitter, be on Twitter.

Doing or not doing “social media”?

Choosing between “doing social media” or “not doing social media”, is not about choosing between doing what we do today and having a social media strategy, but it is about doing a combination of both.

You might feel today that you are overspending on advertising and sales costs, and underspending on social media.

So why not bring that back into balance?

Best regards,

Tom De Baere