Is social media right for your company?

A lot of businesses are now taking advantage of the social media market, but does it really provide an advantage for your company? That depends on what you are offering.

“According to Adweek, there is bad news for brands who are rushing to social media sites. Young people don’t want to be friends with you! According to a new report from Forrester Research, just 6% of 12-17-year-olds who use the web want to be friends with a brand on Facebook.

Among Web-connected 18-24-year-olds, that figure doubles, which means that only 12% of 18-24-year-old think is ok to friend a brand. Even scarier for brands: Young people don’t want brands’ friendship, and they think brands should go away.”

“Young consumers are basically telling brands, when I interact with you I want you to listen to me and interact with you. I don’t want to interact (friend) a brand that just engages in a one-way conversation with me.” Social Media Optimization

It’s pretty agreeable that the vast majority of people do not want to be branded, but to simply choose the brand of preference. If you are offering a service, social media is absolutely for you because the product is based on customer interaction. When the customer interacts with your company on a social media network they are sharing the great experience they had, and not endorsing a product.  We’re not sales people, but we sure love to tell stories about our life experiences. If you’re selling a product it’s best to stick to SEM or standard marketing techniques to keep the power of choice in the consumers hands. Recently PepsiCo found out the hard way by dropping standard advertising all together, spending at least 50 per cent of its American branding budget on social media.

“Beverage Digest reported last month that the company’s flagship brand, Pepsi, had fallen to third place behind Coke and Diet Coke. Pepsi – known for its Refresh Everything goodwill campaign and a bevy of social media efforts – had ranked second for decades in that sales category. Some considered the slip an indictment of the brand’s embrace of social media and de-emphasis of traditional broadcast advertising – exemplified by its withdrawal from the Super Bowl last year.” Clickz.com

Find more information on Businessdailyafrica.com about PepsiCo and social media marketing.

The bottom line is, if you’re offering a product, social media could be a gamble for you; if it’s a service social media can do wonders for you! If you’re not sure, don’t be scared to talk to us, we’ll help you reach the most accurate demographic.