Social Media FAQs

What is social media?

Social media is the distribution of information via online social interaction. That social interaction can occur on your own website (blogs, product reviews, message boards, etc.), or on external sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.).

Social media involving your brand occurs with or without your active participation.

Why use social media?

Here’s the deal. We could go into the multitude of reasons as to why your business should be using social media, but, the truth is, there’s only one reason that really translates. Your business should be using social media because your competition already is. What’s more, if your competition is using social media effectively, they are not only stealing your potential customers, but they’re quietly collecting your current ones.

Is social media a trend that I can ignore until it goes away?

It depends. Do you think the internet is a trend you can ignore until it goes away? Since you’re reading this online, I’d have to guess your answer to this question is “no”.

Social media has been around as long as the internet has been in our homes. Back then it came in the form of newsgroups, message boards, chat, etc. What we’re witnessing right now is the evolution of social media, or Web 2.0. Social media is how people choose to communicate with each other online. While something will eventually come along and replace Facebook and Twitter, it’s important that you understand what social media is and how to effectively participate in it, because social media is now and will continue to be a key player in nearly every company’s successful marketing strategy.

Oh, and if that’s not enough to convince you, here’s a nice little video from the kids over at Socialnomics:

How much time and money will social media cost my business?

It depends. At minimum, you should dedicate five minutes a day to social media. The tools are free, so the cost is dependent on what five minutes of your time is worth. When you begin to see results, you can dedicate more time. And, because you’ll be seeing results, you won’t see social media as something that takes away from your business, but something that brings you business and adds to your company’s overall worth.

When it comes to social media, a little bit goes a long way.

A kid who works for me knows Facebook, should I let him run my social media campaign?

Believe it or not, we see this one a lot. Because one of our specialties is social media for wineries, we’ve found that many a winery simply lets a member of their tasting room staff take charge of their social media campaign. While it’s fantastic that winery has someone ready and willing to take on this task, it is dangerous to let anyone take control of your company’s online reputation without a social media plan, or without social media rules. The solution to this problem is easy. Train that person in your tasting room, and they could be your biggest asset. If you don’t (and we see this happening quite often), that person could be unknowingly and unintentionally damaging your brand.