Social media is important. If you don't believe me, google it… or read one of the thousands of books and articles on the topic. But I'm not here to convince you that your company needs to utilize social tools (not today at least). For now, we'll just accept it as fact: Social media is important.
The problem is, the term "social media" encompasses six different categories of social media: collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (e.g. Blogger and Twitter), content communities (e.g. Youtube), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life). Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few.
I wouldn't dare attempt counting all of the platforms inside each one of these horrifyingly broad categories. Lets just estimate it at a billion.
So which one is the most important? Most effective? Most urgent? While answering these questions can be a daunting task, one form of social media that has stuck out to me time and time again are Reviews. Whether your company offers a product or a service, your reviews can make or break your business in a heartbeat. Most of the time reviews are interconnected throughout the internet and when someone types in your business into google, and sees your single, pitiful star next to your business listing, 9 out of 10 people will completely write you off and take their business elsewhere.
Granted, some people are just ridiculous and make it a point to make you look bad because their seared tuna was too cooked, but that is why we (Imperial Marketing Concepts) offer reputation restoration. We resolve negative, false or just plain ridiculous comments and/or claims.
It is common knowledge that people are more likely to complain about a service or product, rather than praise it, but that is why we have a "reviews" section on all our clients' Facebook pages. That way the business can encourage and reward customers for their positive reviews.
Sure, most forms of social media are beneficial for even the most obscure business, but if you're reviews do not accurately reflect your business, and you do not seek to restore your reputation, no amount of social media marketing could ever save you.
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