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"Social Media, I just don't get it"!

  

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The number one comment I get when I talk to the uninitiated, and certainly the above 40 crowd, when I talk about Social Media is "I just don't get it!"  And who can blame them.  I myself struggle with the notion of how to keep up with the myriad of discussions and vehicles.  When I look at what others are doing I ask myself how do those people find the time and what value is there in following the banal conversations of the average "Twit-er".  There is much out there that would support the more cynical take on Social Media, but to focus exclusively on that aspect would be to ignore some of the more practical benefits.  According to a recent post in toprankblog.com, these include:

• Gaining insight into a community of interest - Most consumers these days do their research online before purchasing, whether or not they end up buying online. Like it or not, these consumers wade through discussions on the subject of interest in coming to their decisions, so it's a good idea to stay connected with what's being said and who the influencers are.
• Building brand visibility and authority - You can either chose to let people shape your reputation on their own or you can choose to participate. The decision is entirely yours, but most can see the merits of the latter option!
• Influencing and promoting specific products/services - Proactively providing information, either through dialogue or pure advertising on social media sites, can help to build "buzz" around these products/services
• Link building for traffic and SEO - Creating linkbait and promoting it to social media news and bookmarking sites can attract a slew of links from bloggers that read them, as long as you don't go too far and get outed as engaging in social media spam.
• Driving traffic for ad revenue models - By creating quality content, you can be rewarded by gathering a large base of followers. These followers can serve as an effective distribution channel for such content, which then drives traffic to ad supported blogs hosting it.

By getting past some of the more stereotypical perceptions of social media being a time-wasting addiction for a younger generation, business executives can start to understand more about the value of social media in further business objectives.