You’re Social But Are You Paying Attention?

So your SEO or PR firm said you need to be social. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, whatever. You listened and went along with it and now have a “Social Media Presence.” But are you paying attention to it?

Setting up these profiles on the various social channels is a necessary step to complete the circle of your online success, but just being there isn’t enough. You have to be interactive, post comments, encourage dialogue, and answer questions from your fans.

Having a presence on social networks but paying no attention to it can actually cause your brand MORE damage than having no presence at all. For instance, if someone asks a question that goes unanswered, it’s very public to everyone else following you. If someone complains and you didn’t see it, you look irresponsible as a company.

If you are a small business with limited resources this doesn’t mean you have to be checking all your channels every second of the day. Your time is valuable and you have other things to focus on. That said, you probably still need to check your social networks at least once a day to see if there is anything that needs to be addressed. If you are a larger company that is more visible in the social eye, you need to be much more vigilant and should have the resources to devote to making your social interactions quick, helpful and fun. Finally, if you have a lot of employees in the public eye, remind them that they are representatives of the company and if they have clients or customers following their own social presence, they don’t want to do something like the whole Justine Sacco mess from last week.

While it seems like it can be a total time-suck, spending a few minutes a couple times a week is all it takes to stay on top of what is going on in the online social world for your business.