As a Social Media advocate, you may find it odd for me to discuss social media cons, but I have heard a few of them lately, and I would like to address them. Here are the top 5 cons we have encountered recently.
Social Networking Sites Cons
1) It takes too much time – This is very possible, if you spend all of your time playing farm town, sorority life, or mafia wars. Once you sit down to work on your social networking sites, you must stay focused. If you find that you are spending too much time on social media, take a look at what you are doing. Leave the old boyfriends alone and build business or relationships!
2) It’s just for kids – According to AARP, baby boomers are the fastest growing segment of social media users. Yes, I agree, that myspace is still a bit kiddie, and we don’t really suggest much use of it. Also, Facebook was created for social networking among college students, but it has changed. Kids will always adopt technology, but so has everyone else! Ask grandma if she is on facebook, and when she joined.
3) I don’t want to be found online – This is an very naive statement, but I heard it quite a bit. Are you serious? When people still used phone books, we could find you. Now you think a complex, intelligent internet is not going to have information on you? What about your business? I bet you think you can shield that too? I don’t mean to be harsh, but information is there, especially about yoru business. Mess up one time, and watch the reviews. You will be found online in one way or the other, so we suggest you hop on board and engage those users talking, writing, commenting, or reviewing about you!
4) People can pretend to be someone else – This is very true, but they can do that in person as well. All it takes is a business card and a smile, and I can be the next CEO of SchittsandGiggles.com. You should be intelligent in connecting and building relationships. Explore someone when you think they may not be who they say they are, and if you have that feeling, you probably don’t want to deal with them anyway!
5) Social media distracts my employees – I agree again that this can happen, but do you think the growth of social networking sites in the past few years is the first time employees wasted your money while on the clock? They never gossiped for 2 hours EVERY morning before facebook and twitter? Social media is just what the distraction is now. Instead of banning it, encourage them to use it to your advantage. Push your employees to become advocates for your company. Tell people on their facebook about how great it is to work for you! They are going to talk anyway, so make it worthwhile to you.