Last week we discussed whether or not one could truly separate social media for business and for personal use. After that discussion I was talking with a friend and they wanted me to answer, off the record, if I thought social media for business was truly meant for every business.
My knee-jerk response is YES but I really thought about it for a moment. Obviously I would naturally be a biased party for this type of question but I wanted to play the devil’s advocate, just to entertain the idea.
Honestly, I’m not really sure. There are definitely pros and cons to every business depending on so many different factors (who is running it, resources, budget, time, etc.) but is there truly any company or industry where the cons outweigh the benefits?
Watch the video below with Melonie discussing this week’s topic for our new segment called Real Talk, a weekly discussion dedicated to candid conversations affecting business owners in the social media and online marketing world.
Even when I start to think about the more professional companies, the answer still goes back to LinkedIn, even if they see no value in Twitter or Facebook. Social media for business has evolved so much and continues to grow tremendously with 91% of online adults using social networks regularly. The gap is continuing to close to the point where it may quickly become a tiny, barely visible sliver in a pie chart comparing online users using social versus those that do not.
Given this fact (and the many others we are inundated with), is it possible to suggest that the epidemic of social media for business can’t serve every industry? It’s fair to suggest that some will benefit more than others but does the argument against social media for business stand any ground for a particular business or industry?