A friend alerted me to this article in the Economic Times about the dangers of overrelying on Facebook or any one platform for that matter.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/brand-equity/being-on-facebook-alone-doesnt-guarantee-more-market-share-it-could-even-evict-you/articleshow/9114185.cms
Nowadays you can see the website URLs being replaced with Facebook URLs for companies in TV and print adverts. I think thats a bit dangerous. I had earlier written about how 'Facebook owns Facebook' and no one else and current events have proven me right. However there is no need to panic as well. As always the best path is of balance and steadiness.
Some quick recommendations for fine tuning your Social Media strategy.
The part about being able to purchase 'likes' is really scary. Google is all the time dealing with people trying to 'game' the system and Facebook faces the same challenge. Why do so many people like to go for 'shortcuts' when the proper path can be rewarding and sustainable. Each company should figure out their own goals from their social media engagement and they can be wildly different from another company in the same industry. Like they say, 'Each to his own'. Copycatting is not a good strategy on Social Media.
Your social media effort should tell a story. A story can be as simple as 'How we are green friendly' or 'The way we do things around here'. Bring out the individuality of your business through an engaging story. Leverage the story with regular posts, stretch it out with a continous narrative. And for god's sake make sure its got a bit of 'Fun' in it.
Although Social media is often associated with more 'verbal' communications it can also be used to showcase your creativity. It won't do to have a spanking website and a dull Facebook page. Utilize Facebook's functionality of custom tabs to create unique creative avenues for the visitors. These can be hosted on your site but piped to Facebook through Iframes and custom tabs.
Facebook and Twitter are settling into an equlibrium position. They have created their slots in marketing lore alongside Google & YouTube ? and from here onwards they will most probably only remain the same or even decline. Like nature, marketing (especially online) abhors a avacuum and something new is bound to come along. The circus will begin again and the whole cycle will be repeated till even that finds its niche and settles down. Its a never ending cycle.
As part of the online marketing world we watch with bated breath fresh developments, especially 'Google +1' (although I suspect it will be more of the same)
Cheers,
Ron
He has been in the web development business for the almost two decades.He is a keen student of marketing and business development and writes regularly on web strategy and other related topics which is read and followed by many every month.
