Social Media. Giving, not taking.

In my mind a good business is one that offers a quality service and meets the needs of it's desired audience. If it does this and you value the customers you have, your business should naturally grow (via word of mouth and reputation). A company that does not look after it's present consumers has no business in attempting to attract more. This concept I think applies to Social Media...

Social Media is now recognised by most, if not all companies as a fantastic tool to reach and connect to vast audiences. I was a marketing assistant for a large UK charity for six months and my primary role was to pioneer their social media efforts. My success was gauged primarily by the amount of traffic our social media outposts generated to our official website. That and how many 'like's we got on facebook and how many 'follow's we obtained on twitter. I get the impression that many companies have realised that social media is an area of marketing they 'are not capitalising on' and are now employing people to try and 'catch up' with competition and create a 'social media prescence'. I think this is a wrong mind set to have and it can lead to bad use of social media within companies.

Ok so here is my hypothesis:
'Social Media is a tool to offer more to your customers/audience. Not a tool to boost your business. It's about giving more, NOT taking.'

Good Social Media will boost your business if it is done well, but good social media does not chase an audience... It provides for one. The success of your social media should be gauged on how well you accomodate your current audience. One of the great perks of social media is the ease at which media can be shared and promoted. There are many great tips as to how you can maximise your social media prescence but if you're primary focus is being noticed... why and what you are noticed for is equally if not more important.

So to summarise... I believe, like many others that content is King, but also your focus and intention within Social Media needs to be on providing/connecting with your current audience... not merely expanding!