Not all social media is used for good

When it comes to marketing every business is always looking for the most efficient way to reach their customers. Social media has become the new “golden child” in that so many are touting how it can build your brand and make your business grow.

Business owners are split into three basic groups. There are those that have jumped on the band wagon and can’t wait to tell everyone how much they love it. Or you have those that are investigating and taking tentative steps. Lastly you have those that have absolutely no interest or see no benefit.

No matter what group you fall into you have to wonder if the recent flash mobs in Philadelphia will have any impact on how businesses feel about social media. These mobs are comprised of kids using facebook, twitter and text messaging to get all of their friends to meet at specific locations in the city. That alone wouldn’t be a problem except that at these gatherings there always seems to be some that are looking for trouble and it has caused the police to be brought in to contain the crowds and make arrests.

Business owners who already have fully developed social programs and see the benefits are not likely to close up what they have built. The group who has no interest is going to use this to prove their point that social media has no useful purpose and this will confirm their decision to keep away from using social options. But those that haven’t fully committed could see this as a reason to hesitate. They might see that so many kids use these tools and feel that these are the majority of people on these sites and using things like facebook and twitter would be a waste and won’t reach their target audience.

Businesses need to remember that facebook is the most popular site and that on here the 14-17 year old group is actually less than 10% of the users. The growth of social media across all age groups is making it something that businesses can’t ignore and that they need to think of not if it should be in their marketing mix but how much and how to implement.

On Wednesday read how social media was used for a war of words between Philly teens and a local shore community.

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