Social Media: Don’t Set It and Forget It

Written by Kristy Pruitt · Print This Article

It’s amazing how far social media has come in such a short time. Ten years ago, people who used their computers to communicate with others were often referred to as geeks. Now, the tables have been turned. If you don’t use Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, people begin to wonder which rock you just crawled out from under.

That’s not to say that everybody is using social media. There are still plenty of people who aren’t. But there are enough people who are using it that if you’re not, there’s a good chance that you’re alienating at least some of your customers.

I just finished reading a post over at the Outspoken Media blog about businesses using Twitter. Most of the corporate big dogs are doing it, as well as a rapidly increasing number of small business owners. But as Lisa Barone pointed out in that thought-provoking post, hiring someone to do your tweeting for you and then forgetting about it can easily backfire.

If you’ve been following White House news, you might have heard that President Obama recently let it slip that he has never used Twitter. Seeing how he has well over two million followers, it’s obviously well known that he has a Twitter account. And being the President of the United States and all, few of us would expect (or want) him to sit around and write tweets all day. But to learn that none of the tweets came from the man himself? I found that a little bit disheartening.

Still, I can get over that. At least he is aware of his social media presence, and the importance of it. Sadly, the same can’t be said for a lot of businesses.

In large corporations, social media is generally handled by the marketing department. They can afford to pay someone to use Twitter and Facebook, and they do so because they know that such efforts can cement relationships with existing customers and attract new ones. But they often make the mistake of assigning someone to handle social media and leaving everyone else in the dark about it. So when a customer mentions that they found out about that big sale through Twitter, the clerk might have no idea what he’s talking about.

True, nobody should expect every representative of a big company to be completely up to date on the latest post to its Facebook account. But they should know about the important stuff, like exclusive promotional offers and such. If they don’t, the company could end up with a lot of angry customers who who can easily get the word out to the rest of the world via their own social media accounts.

And when it comes to small businesses, being literate in social media is even more important. The business owner might hire a virtual assistant to handle it because she doesn’t have time to do it herself, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to harness the power of social media, you must know a little about how it works. And as a small businessperson, your customers will also expect you to know what’s being said, even if you didn’t write it yourself.

Bottom line: You don’t have to oversee every aspect of your social media presence yourself. But it’s a good idea to know how to do so, and to keep tabs on the person who’s doing the writing for you is saying.