Dangers of Social Media for Marketing
Social Media Suspension?
What would happen if you relied on Twitter for communication with your customers and you suddenly got shut down? This scenario has happened to some high profile companies who, out of the blue, at no fault of their own were shut off with clients and business partners because of a mistake or arbitrary suspension by a social media company.
Regardless of whether it’s YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, your business is subject to the whims of the owners of those social media channels and their rules. Even though it isn’t usually a problem, it’s wise to plan for unexpected consequences of the changing rules and control these companies have. Your emails to their support departments most likely will be going into a black hole, at least for awhile before you can figure out what to do to get your account back online.
The main problem comes from the loss of contact you have with customers and prospects that were developed through these social media channels. How do you recover your customer lists? How do you protect yourself from this possibility?
Highlight Your Brand and Main Website
Be sure when building and using social media properties to support your business you always emphasize your brand through links to your primary websites. The benefit is two-fold: you build your company web brand and you provide a visible method for alternative and continued communication with your business. Having 5,000 fans on Facebook won’t do you much good if your account gets shut down, even if only temporary, unless those same “fans” have had a reason to visit your business website previously and know where you find you if something does happen.
Building an email list from your social media website visitors is one of the best ways to ensure that you maintain contact with your audience and the best way to do that is to provide an incentive on your website through an opt-in process and free offer. Social media is excellent for enhancing and building rapport and communicating with prospective and existing customers, but primarily has an enhancement to your existing core business marketing systems. These marketing systems include web properties that you control, i.e., your main website and list building mechanisms.
Use Multiple Social Media Channels
It seems obvious, but many companies focus all of their social media efforts on just one channel, for example, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. Although, not every platform is appropriate for every business, depending on just one leaves you vulnerable. If your Twitter account gets shut down, you’ll still have your company blog or YouTube channel to communicate current news and information.
Another strategy is to continually maintain a backup or method for capturing the visitors to your social media properties just as you backup your website and personal computers. When not possible, at least identify those thought leaders in your market who communicate to their own fan base so in the case of unforeseen problems, you can continue your contact with them and thereby reach your larger market.
Follow the Rules of Social Media Engagement
Be sure you understand the Terms and Conditions for these sites. You may find yourself doing something that makes total sense to your, but actually violates a key rule of engagement/guidelines for the social media site. For example, Facebook allows commercialization on a business account, but not on your personal fan page.
Even more scary, is that you may get banned or suspended even for associating with someone or an organization that is spamming or using other tactics in violation of the social site’s guidelines. You may not even know you’re doing it, but in most cases, when you find yourself asking whether or not someone is doing seems questionable, stay away or you may regret it later.
Author Steve Josephs is owner of Intellidon Marketing LLC, a Search Engine Marketing and Seo Services firm specializing in attracting new customers for local businesses through Online Marketing Strategies. See Wikipedia definition of Search Engine Optimization.
