Social Media Myth

I was in process of hiring an candidate who can manage a SMO for in house as well as for my clients. During the process I interviewed almost 20 odd candidates for same and heard lot of thoughts about the Social Media. There are lot of Myth in market for Social Media. I am trying to pull out some of them as per my understanding and hopefully will help you also.

• Social Media is Free - My dear if you put your valuable time in Social Media than how can it be free. I don’t understand why people feel it’s free when they are spending time on Social Media Channel.

• Killer Content catch Fire- Sorry to say but if you have a thought that a good quality content can catch fire and spread throughout the internet than update yourself at the earliest. Good quality content can catch fire if it has been placed at right place and for right people. Else it’s a wastage of Quality content and your valuable time.

• Employees killing time on Social Media - Some of the employers have fear that their employees will waste time if company allow them to use social media. And the Fact is this- Research from MIT notes that 40% of employees productivity is directly explained by the among of communication they have with others to discover, gather and internalize information. Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues.

• No rule Game - IF you think that social media work with no rule than you are wrong. If you think that you can say anything or do whatever you want without understanding an impact than better check yourself and your thought again. Let me give you an small example recently one of the Indian political leader "Shashi Tharoor" give comment on Traveling of politician in Airlines Economy class over one of the social media website, he has to face a unforgettable problem as his own collogues asking for his immediate resignation. So RULE is always there !

• KID Zone- Some of the great people says that Social media is for Kids therefore it is only a toy and not to be taken seriously for assessment as a business tool.

Research by Nielsen in 2009 showed that use of Web 2.0 websites is now more popular than email with an estimated growth three times as fast as the pace of general online growth.
# Global share of time accounted for by people using social media increased by 38%.
# Men and women aged 65 and above moving to social media websites grew by 7 per cent
# The 17-and-under category dropped by 9 per cent
http://nitinmaximumhit.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-media-recall-brands.html
http://nitinmaximumhit.blogspot.com/2009/07/banking-with-social-media.html

• Low Quality Relationship - Send all those people to Mars if they feel you cannot build a good quality relationship over internet, when people are getting married over internet. I hope you understand what i mean to say.

• Add Every One – If you think adding everybody as a friend will get you a social media success than my dear you are in wrong phase and come out as soon as possible. Just because you’re connected with thousands of users, doesn’t mean you’ll build a strong connection with everyone. Always Remember, quality trumps quantity every time.

• Easy process- Do you have a belief that social media is one of the easiest thing to do ? If yes than let me tell you it’s NOT. Those who don’t understand how social media works assume it’s as easy as starting up a blog. They subscribe to the ‘if you build it, they will come” mentality. Fast-forward a few weeks when no one is visiting their blog or promoting their content, and they then swear off social media forever.

• No ROI of Social Media - Let me correct you if you also have the same thought for Social media ROI. Social media has shown huge ROI through increased search engine optimization alone and not only this Social media Recall Bands . Social media has resulted in higher organic search results and quantifiable number of new business leads.

• Social Media is a Security Threat –Some of the great employers feel that their employees will share the organizations IP or say something that could land the company in legal trouble if they depart from their traditional editorial control processes. A study from Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law finds that 81% of companies believe social media is a corporate security risk. As a result, many organizations does not allow social media platforms. Despite this fear from corporate heads, the study also found that 69 % of those surveyed said they did not have a written social media policy in place. 25 % said they were unsure what the policy should include while 9 % said it was unimportant.

• Social Media is for Minors- Most of the top executives feel that Social media is for small (SME) companies so my dear let me tell you few giants who are in Social media and you decide how small they are in front of you. Some of the companies using social media channel for there marketing and sales : DELL,STARBUCKS,MCDONALS,SONY,SAMSUNG,LG,NOKIA,CANON,KINGFISHER,COMCAST,FORD, Chevrolet and so on for detail http://nitinmaximumhit.blogspot.com/2009/08/big-brands-tweeting.html

• FaceBook or ORKUTING is Social Media - I love FB or Orkut, but it’s not the end-all of social media. If these are the only thing you focus on, you’ll end up being sorely disappointed. Again, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. There are numerous social media sites out there for you to take advantage of. Find the ones that fit best with your niche.

• Blogging is too scary -Many companies are scared to death of blogging for fear of negative reactions or simply “messing up” . A blog is a reflection of the company’s values, strategies and direction. If done in a professional way, blogging can become an effective medium to encourage a two-way conversation that shows your clients or customers that you care about their opinions.
  

Business Branding Through Corporate Blog :-http://nitinmaximumhit.blogspot.com/2009/08/business-branding-through-corporate.html

Happy Blogging !

Nitin Chauhan | nitin@maximumhit.com | www.maximumhit.com