How much worth is a Social Media Site for your business?
I just recently read and article titled: “Study: CEOs Not Doing Enough on Social Networks” in which the a author suggested that to not use Social Media sites is one of the craziest things she could imagine. She took Fortune’s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs and found what she calls a “miserable level of engagement” when it comes to social networks. She goes on to state: “What CEOs need to realize is that millions of their customers are communicating this way, and it’s foolish for them to dismiss this,” Barclay said.
So it’s a terrible thing for these company executives to ignore Facebook and Linkedin? I tried to join linkedin as I’d never heard of it before I read this article. While I’m still not sure of exactly what Linkedin does for me as a business owner, I can tell you that I’ll most likely never use it due to it not working very well. For the last 5 minutes the site has been sitting here spinning just trying to register my name.
As for Facebook, it’s a great website for catching up with friends and chewing the rug, but it’s real usefulness to a business owner is questionable at best. Can you find customers on it? Do people actually go to Facebook and ask others what they know of Lizzy and Nizex Inc.? Do they spend time researching how to best run their companies? Or heck, how many are actual business owners to begin with? To give merit to these sites as some sort of wonderful untapped sales tool seems weak at best. Before you can tell me I should have a facebook account for my business, you should first explain to me how having a facebook account is going to increase sales or support and by how much.
Again, I’m not against Facebook and I’m not sure what Linkedin even is since it’s still sitting here spinning its wheels just trying to get me registered, but to suggest that my business is in jeopardy just because I don’t have a linkedin account seems to me a survey done by someone that has never herself run a real business. Oh, and the company executives that she suggests she surveyed? Well, it seems she didn’t actually speak with any of them and they run companies so large that I doubt their using Facebook ever enters into their minds.