Jacob Morgan | Best-Selling Author, Speaker, & Futurist | Leadership | Future of Work | Employee Experience

Do You Have to Get Involved in Social Media?

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note, the monkey has nothing to do with this post, I just liked the pic, maybe you cant think of a way to relate it to the post 🙂

Let’s be honest shall we?

You don’t have to have a twitter profile, you don’t have to have a blog, you don’t have to have a facebook profile, you don’t have to have a linkedin profile; in fact you don’t have to have any type of social media tools at all.  This is one of the reasons why I think social media shouldn’t be pitched.

That being said there are a lot of things you don’t have to have, such as a business model (if you’re a silicon valley startup).  BUT, if you are struggling to build relationships with your user base, if you are looking for ways to better market your product or service, if you are looking for ways to increase your brand awareness and loyalty, and if you are in any way looking to build you’re online presence; then social media is probably something that you want to consider.

H&R Block didn’t have to create a twitter profile and neither did Southwest Airlines, but they did it because they were noticing a lack of connection and communication with their users.  Through twitter, both of these companies were able to listen to and respond directly to loyal customers.  Dell didn’t have to create a facebook page and neither did Microsoft but both of these companies were looking for ways to reach out to their customers and build relationships with them.

None of the fortune 1000 companies out there that are using social media HAD to do it, but they all saw areas in which social media could benefit the overall strategy of their company and that is why they got involved.  The point is you or you’re company should not get involved in social media because you have to or because everyone is doing it, you should get involved with social media because you WANT to.  You should see the benefits and the advantages of social media, you should understand that building relationships and creating a solid online presence is crucial, and you should understand that social media can be used in many departments ranging from internal communication to product marketing.

When I speak with people regarding social media I usually get questions like, “why should I have get on twitter or facebook?” and my favorite response is “you shouldn’t.”

Bottom line is get involved in social media because you want to not because you have to.  We all know that when you force a person or company to do something, it usually doesn’t turn out to well, but when the person or the company is looking to grow or to change, then great things can happen.

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10 thoughts on “Do You Have to Get Involved in Social Media?”

  1. Tim Jahn

    Good points here. Getting into social media because “everyone is doing it” is not the answer. Getting into social media to understand people and create relationships is the answer.

  2. Eric Pratum

    I was part of a panel on social networking for MBA students last week, so I threw together a catch-all business student focused blog intro to online social networking here. I was slightly surprised to be asked during the discussion why it's important for business students to be part of online social networking. I thought that they would understand that you can't be found if you don't put yourself out there, so at first, I had the reaction, “What are you thinking?! Of course, it's important, and you should know that,” but then, I realized that they were asking more about priorities. . . “With little time and resources, where is my time best spent and why?”

    I was asked to write a bit more about individual tools soon. I will probably include a link here because your blog is typically very clearly written and to the point.

    Eric Pratum
    The Hotel Experience
    Eric Pratum's Musings

  4. Ari Herzog

    This is precisely why the concept behind Twitter doesn't work for me and countless others. Twitter is billed as a place to answer the question, “What are you doing?”

    Like Jacob's question and your response, Tim, that social media engagement shouldn't be about doing something because everyone else is doing it but because there's some greater organic reason to do it, Twitter should be used to tell your story, explain what you're accomplishing, or to say whatever you want to say. Don't use Twitter to say what you're doing just because Twitter says you should say that.

  5. jacobmorgan

    hey tim, i wish everyone looking to get involved with social media understood that. if you don't understand why you get involved in something then you become bitter when things don't go your way.

    thanks for reading and commenting

  6. jacobmorgan

    hey ari, great point about twitter. we shouldn't have to just say what we're doing because twitter says so. in fact i rarely use twitter to talk about what im doing, i try to send out information and interesting pieces of news.

    im actually not sure about that monkey 🙂

  7. jacobmorgan

    hey eric,
    sounds like an interesting panel you were a part of. even with little time and resources an online presence is crucial, it's like trying to explain to a major company why they need to market there product.

    would appreciate the link 🙂

    thanks for reading and commenting eric. oh and would you mind removing the links from the signature? i want to use this as more of a discussion forum and if everyone starts adding their blogs and companies to the signature it's going to be a mess, thanks!

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