Social media – adding value or just a buzzword?

Everybody knows about FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging, etc, etc. Does it really add value to a business? Should my company use social media? Will social media benefit the bottom line? The short answer is YES. BUT – you need to develop a unique social media / online strategy to implement. Let me be blunt – if you appoint a person under 30 years to run this strategy in your business, you may be better off sticking to the traditional method. The amount of damage you can cause your company by doing it irresponsibly and without proper business insight and experience, is huge. One of my clients got bad press (articles and online blogs) about their business model. I recommended that they make all their existing clients aware of this and to put it into perspective. In this specific case the majority of their clients would not have known about the bad press, but if they did, they would have lost confidence in the business model. It could have resulted in serious consequences for the company if there was a “run on the bank”. I was challenged about my advice, but am happy to report that this resulted in more credible and increased confidence in the company and its management.