Is Social Media The Answer To Your Business Success?
To some of our gung-ho digital marketing brethren, every business — and they emphasize
every business — needs a social media presence in this decade. Are they right?
At Devarj Design, we believe the answer is more nuanced. For many businesses, absolutely.
For some businesses, not really. And for a particular category of businesses, it depends.
Making Essential Brand Connections
There is no shortage of success stories where businesses have ramped up their sales, their
awareness and their reputations through social media channels. Many “disruptor” brands
have made their mark through social channels:
Eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker’s heavy use of Instagram to promote various styles,
special celebrity projects, and even occasional pranks such as “Warby Barker” eyeglasses
for dogs.
Mattress-in-a-box pioneer Casper who promoted a cross-platform “Sleep Channel” of
bedtime stories, meditations and relaxing sounds.
Manufacturer Blendtec who catapulted its little-known commercial blenders into highprofile gourmet stature through a video series, “Will It Blend?”, pureeing everything from
whole chickens to iPhones.
Small brick-and-mortar retail stores, service providers and restaurants, to name a few, can
definitely use social media to form connections with their target customers. One-on-one
dialogue. Sharing pro tips, recipes, factoids and “behind-the-scenes” information. And
launching special promotions just for their followers, rewarding those good customers who
have shown their willingness to deepen their relationship with the business.
Know Your Audience
Yet all of this hinges on one key condition: your target audience has to already be on social
media. And not every business can say “yes” to this. You may personally enjoy using
Facebook to keep up with friends and family, but that doesn’t ensure your customers are
doing the same — or are even on a particular platform. If you cater to people who are not
digitally savvy, or if you choose a platform that doesn’t fit your demographic (think TikTok
vs. LinkedIn) anything you post may go completely unread and unnoticed.
You may also want to think twice about social media if you just plain don’t have the time it
takes to do it correctly. It takes more than the occasional post; it takes planning, budgeting,
setting expectations and measuring results. It also requires input from business owners
that takes away from face time with customers. Sure, you can hire a company like Devarj
Design to develop your strategy, create your content and attract likes and leads — but 1)
there’s going to be a cost, and 2) you have to make certain you’re not perceived as
“inauthentic” — the kiss of death on social media.
Stay In Compliance
And if you’re in the world of tightly-regulated businesses, social media can be a minefield.
The compliance regulations of financial providers, insurance companies, healthcare
organizations and other industries all apply to your content on social media platforms —
no matter who writes it.
If your financial advisory firm fails to first monitor a visitor’s posting that makes a specific
stock recommendation, and it’s published, expect to hear from FINRA.
If an employee posting on your medical clinic’s page accidentally reveals any item of
protected health information — say a patient’s Twitter handle — HIPAA will come calling.
This doesn’t necessarily preclude such firms from having a presence; most financial
institutions today consider social media to be a great tool for directly reaching and
engaging customers. But they follow accepted guidelines for complying with rules and
regulations, making certain that any post or tweet is first reviewed, and that account access
for making anything live is tightly controlled.
Which is frankly a good idea for any company today using social media; the list of
companies recently making public apologies for insensitive/offensive posts from
thoughtless employees is long indeed (see Burger King’s recent “women belong in the
kitchen” tweet). The ancillary costs of damage control can run into the tens of thousands of
dollars, so having a third party review your social media procedures is always a good idea.
Devarj Design is glad to provide a no-obligation consultation on social media best practices,
so go ahead and email, call, or, yes, text us @ 219/484-6926
