The business risk of Social Media - Why should you (not) be on social media.

I realize that most people can't understand why they need to be on Social Media and I come to this realisation as I flew to Cape Town this morning on a flight that had been delayed by an hour and a half.

During my wait I looked to see if there was any communication about this delay, only to find that there is no communication only reaction to complaints, but nothing positive and no proactive communication whatsoever, not today or anytime in the recent past.

I have to wonder what the business case is that motivates this non communication. All I can think is that the attitude must be, they need to fly with us and what difference pro-active communication make to our bottom line anyway?

Initially I may have to agree, if you are flying with them and your flight is full then it must be working or is it? Perhaps we expect nothing and the carrier knows this and they give us nothing. Perhaps the carrier thinks that if you want social media you should pay for it just like you pay for the food and drink on board some of the flights.

But we are in a world of customer experience not just customer service! This experience is everything from parking your car, to the cleanliness of the terminal buildings and its restrooms to your flight and the conditions at your destination. All of this adds to the experience so why not add pro-active communication into this experience?

The other argument is that no one is doing it ... But that is not true because the competition are doing it better, but they are just pro-active and have not learnt to be truly interactive as yet.

Many businesses can't see the need to be social and if that is you, the question must be asked does no one need to know about your product? Do you not have thought leaders in your company whose opinions would be valuable in industry? Do you have all the resource skills you need and is everyone lining up to work for you?

If you answered yes to these questions then your brand has proceeded itself and you need not communicate with anyone.

But social is about constant communication - think about it as a relationship, all relationships need effective communication to be effective. Without this communication nothing will be sustainable.

Think about your brand, your business, your product or your organisation is there a good reason why it should not be social and communicating in an interactive way with the world?

mage courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net