Establishing The Why Of Social Media

If you are one of the many businesses or brands excited about integrating social media into your marketing mix but are still unsure of exactly how or where to start in using social media effectively my suggestion would be to answer why, as in why does my brand wish to use social media marketing?

This is a highly critical step that will not only form the foundation for creating your social media strategy but will also aid you in determining the metrics to be used in tracking and measuring ROI. If your are unable or unwilling to answer why it is you want to use social media before actually using social media, you may find initial success elusive.

The Wrong Type Of Why

Far too often companies answer the question of why they want to use social media with the all too familiar answer of “because everyone else is” this type of lemming behavior will eventually lead you and your brand towards failure because in failing to answer why, you will have failed to successfully identify how your brand can most benefit from the use of social media.

The Right Types Of Why

So if the wrong answer to why is because others are doing it, then what are some of the reasons why your business should be using social media as a marketing platform?

1. Increase Brand Recognition
2. Increased Sales
3. Increased Site Traffic
4. Improve Customer Relations
5. Improved Customer Support
6. Building New Business Partnerships

There are as many reasons for businesses to use social media as there are businesses actually using it, some want to drive traffic, others want to capture brand recognition and still others are looking to use it as a help center for existing customers but what needs to be remembered is that in order to stand a better chance at capturing success you need to answer why it is you want to use social media.

Will My Answer To Why Change Over Time?

There will come a point when the why you want to use social media will change, maybe you initially began using social media to increase brand recognition and know you feel this has been successful and now you wish to concentrate on increasing sales or increasing site traffic you can easily revisit your social media strategy and re-align your goals and objectives to better focus on answering the question of why you want to use social media.

Final Thoughts

While entirely possible to be successful in social media without answering the question of “Why does our brand want to use social media?” the benefits gained by going through and answering the question far outweigh any perceived negatives. In knowing why your brand wants to use social media you stand a greater chance of achieving success by knowing why you are here, where you want to be and how you are going to get there but your initial social media strategy starts with knowing why.

Has your business answered the question “Why do we want to use social media?” yet?

Flickr Photo why? by SarahWynne