Seems like I keep getting asked this question every couple of weeks… Where is Social Media Going??
Change Being Made at the Top
Every meeting I have with business owners or executives the conversation turns to asking me to tell them where I see Social Media going. My pat answer now has been to ask them..Where do you want social media to go? Naturally, that starts the conversation in the direction of talking ROI for which most businesses have quickly found there is no ROI in social media…or at least not in the traditional sense.
What business people are telling me is they have tried the Facebook thing… and the Twitter thing… and the LinkedIn thing and now the Pinterest thing. They see their CRM’s are having a lot of fun in the social spaces and there are a few examples where they have been able to put out a fire or two. However, in one of the more recent meetings I had the executive of one of the fortune 100 summed it up by saying…
“We are having a lot of Yada, Yada going on in the social networks but really are not seeing it moving people to come into our stores or buy anything online. We can’t afford to stay in this direction and would rather only fund being in one social space. Since none of the platforms we currently are getting us anywhere, which social network would be the one we should support that would get us in front of the consumers?”
I wanted to provide this quote since it is nearly the same message I have received from other businesses over the past five months. I wish I was at liberty to say who said it, but that was not approved so we will just leave it with them being a company that is very influential to the economy and is a firm that 90% of the business world follows each move they make in business.
Fog on the Future is Lifting
Naturally, I quickly advice them of my success with Google+ and the companies I have helped in experiencing the value of Google+. The verdit is still out on if these companies I recently have met with are going to make the jump to reality, but I am encouraged in them allowing me hear their thinking on this issue.
It is encouraging to know the companies I felt would be slow to accept social media have actually accepted the fact that social media is the new Marketing for businesses. Now that they have tested the waters of social media and found what has been hyped as the places they need to be online to get in front of millions of people is really not productive they now have quickly found they really only have been getting in front of millions of computer programs built to appear to be people.
The uncontrolled ‘wild west’ environment the previously mainstream social networks built to draw in millions of people for them to market to has turned these influential business leaders stomachs. They are not excited with continuing down these paths to nowhere.
Getting Real
It could be these companies are embarrassed of the fact they have wasted their stockholder’s money by building their presence in these social networks only to find it did not market the company towards enhancing their revenue horizons. They certainly did not give me any indication they plan on moving out of these platforms. It was clear they are not going to maintain the presence much longer and not make another move until they can make certain the funds they appropriate for their next thrust into the social spaces is going to show some sort of impact to their bottomline.
They did like to learn the impact Google+ has to providing a positive impact in the search engines the other spaces can’t touch and the fact that Google manages Google+ activity very closely to make sure the marketing games and scams are controlled.
Move to Google+ Being Made
Over the last five months all of the meetings I had ended with me feeling certain that Google+ now is on these influential businesses radar. It also is exciting to know they are seeing what I am seeing going on in the Facebook, Foursquare Pinterest and Twitter arenas that is not appealing..or should not be appealing..for their or anyone’s business’s image.
Now the question is, will these businesses who throw billions of dollars into the economy force a favorable light on Google+ being the social platform to be on? I would say it would be a smart move on their part.
I’ll will be watching what takes place with this situation. Right now, I would encourage you to get your business on Google+ and learn how being interactive in G+ produces results. Let me know how I can help.
