Brands fear the social media revolution

Social Media Revolution

The increasing popularity and usage of social media is changing the ways brands and consumers are connecting. Whether it’s a direct message on Twitter or a comment of Facebook, relationships between brands and consumers are being created, maintained and strengthened because of social media.

According to the following “Social Media Revolution” video, 93 percent of marketers use social media for business. What about the other seven percent? Despite the positives of utilizing social media, one of the main reasons some brands are avoiding it is because of its power.

“Social Media Revolution” video showcases the power of social media.

Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics and the video’s creator, said brands don’t have a choice to use social media. “We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it,” he said.

Top Fears

According to an Online Marketing Trends article, brands have five top fears of using social media. Although these fears are realistic and potentially harmful to brands, the benefits of social media outweigh the risks. Brands must be willing to take risks and overcome obstacles if they want to be successful in the digital world and remain relevant.

Fear 1: Negative Feedback

Brands are afraid of the freedom of expression on social media. What happens when a consumer posts, “Your new product sucks big time,” on a brand’s Facebook page after a product launch? That comment is there for everyone to see, and will most likely encourage others to share their opinions as well. An employee could delete the post, but that would only anger the consumer even more.

If brands can effectively address negative feedback on social media, it could potentially build their customer service reputations. The employee (from the example above) could comment on the post and say something like, “We value our consumers’ opinions, so thank you for contacting us. Please check your inbox, so we can chat further to improve the situation.” This way the post is not deleted. Everyone may see that the employee helped the consumer resolve the situation, yet part of the conversation is held privately.

Fear 2: Losing Control

Brands are afraid that utilizing social media will allow the power of consumer conversation to overshadow controlled advertisements. For example: if you share your opinion of a brand’s product on Twitter, your followers might value that tweet more than the brand’s advertisements.

With little to no brand control, consumers may evolve a brand via social media. This could be a great way to gain feedback. How do your consumers view your brand? Where do consumers want to see your brand go? Social media can help brands evolve into what the consumers want, beneficial to brands.

Fear 3: Negative Publicity Tarnishing Reputations

Brands are afraid that negative publicity will “take off running” if they implement social media platforms, tarnishing their reputations. Information spreads much faster than it ever has before with the increase in social media.

Quickly spreading news on social media is inevitable whether brands utilize it or not. Brands must respond to and acknowledge negative publicity. If your brand releases a “bad batch” of products and it blows up your Facebook page, own up to the mistake, apologize and tell everyone how your brand plans to rebound.

Fear 4: Who Do We Hire?

Brands fear they’ll being clueless when hiring someone to manage their social media platforms. How are hiring personnel supposed to know if a candidate is suitable for a social media managing position if they themselves have little knowledge on the subject?

Hiring personnel can prepare to be capable of hiring an exceptional social media manager by educating themselves on the topic! On the other hand, more and more colleges are beginning to offer courses and majors in the area of digital and social media, providing more qualified applicants for such a position than before.

Fear 5: Social Media Doesn’t Affect Us

Some brands have avoided social media because they believe it doesn’t affect them. They believe they don’t need it. Wrong.

It’s not whether your brand is affected by social media or not, it’s a question of how it’s affected. Because social media is changing the way we interact, brands will quickly fall behind in communicating with consumers if they do not utilize social media. As seen in the video, the return on investment (ROI) of social media is that your brand will still exist in five years.

Don’t fall behind!