Many of you know that I have mixed feelings about the value of social media. For some businesses, I believe it is a must do sort of thing, for others, not so much. All in all, however, you need to know at least a little about the pros and cons to make an educated decision about whether social media should be part of your marketing strategy. Here are just a couple of the pros and cons to get you thinking.

The Pros

Social media marketing might help your business or product go viral.

By going viral, I mean that information about your business or product might reach millions without spending millions of $$$ in advertising. This is often everyone's wished-for scenario when they first dabble with an internet presence. The truth is that you may not want everyone who stumbles upon your content beating a path to your door. On the other hand, perhaps that is just what you want. In this case, a properly managed social media campaign can help you on your way.

Social media can help you connect with others.

Whether they are customers, followers or constituents, social media is a good way to stay connected and regularly touch those who mean the most to you.

The Cons

Social media is not inexpensive.

While the cash outlay for a social media campaign may be very little, the time it takes to do it effectively is not. Whether you do it or you pay someone to do it, resources are involved. For DIYers, there can be a substantial learning curve while you decide which of the many social media channels make sense for the distribution of your message and subsequently learn how to use them. This can be time well spent, but it will take you away from doing other things at the same time.

Social media is long term.

A good start to a social media campaign is just that. A start. In order to be effective, it takes an ongoing commitment to regularly create and distribute new content. In many ways, a post in a social media channel is like an ad in a daily newspaper. If people see it that day, great, but by tomorrow that paper has gone to recycling. In order to reach and stay in the mind of readers, you need to publish, and keep publishing new content on a regular basis.

Next Steps

Social media is a big subject, learning it all is beyond the scope of a single post. However, we at Fox Computer Systems are embarking upon a new project to explore all aspects of social media. We encourage you to follow us at Acumen Social where we will be posting regular information and how to's about social media processes. And if you're not ready to embark on this process on your own, we're here to help you get started and maintain an active social media campaign. Contact us for more details.