3 Reasons Why Maintaining a Social Media Presence is Crucial to any Business
Tim Martin, Weatherspoon’s chairman, has recently announced that the company will be closing down all social media accounts effective immediately – “It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people spend too much time on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and struggle to control the compulsion,” Mr Martin stated last week.
The reason behind this abandonment of all social channels is still under scrutiny, however it has been mentioned that Mr Martin was unhappy with the large presence of internet trolls taking aim at Weatherspoons social accounts. It is true, social media is sometimes unpleasant. People often write things they wouldn’t dream of saying were they face to face with someone, however there is a lot of relevant research that might suggest that was an ill-informed decision:
1 – Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO – search engines know which sites are actively getting hits, and which are just floating out there in the internet stratosphere. A marketing strategy that aims at increasing Search Engine Optimisation is a crucial part of any approach, and driving traffic to your page via social channels will allow them to climb much higher in the search engine results pages. By eradicating all social media in one brutal hit, you have to question the benefits Mr Martin is hoping to gain aside from a short term peak in publicity.
2 – Social Media is the most efficient tool to connect with and interact with your consumers – If you’re doing it right, social media will lead to real relationship building. Part of what makes platforms like Twitter and Instagram marketing so valuable is the interaction you get to have with your customer base – you can read their tweets, like their pictures, and reply to their direct messages. Insights are more valuable than ever, and with the ability to spot trends and recognise your audiences at the touch of a button, the question remains, why delete all forms of social media?
3 – Users are receptive – If someone is following you, chances are they want to know about you, may you be a business, and friend, or a funny looking dog. Because users are making this choice, they are likely to be receptive of your accounts activity. Because of the way social media started (purely as a platform created to socialise with friends) people widely still don’t view Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as marketing machines. As a result, they are less likely to see your posts as advertisement and be more interested in what you have to say. Tim Martin assured the press that he would be keeping up appearances via more traditional media and press outlets, however whether or not his target audience would receive this form of advertisement as well as they would a social media campaign is still to be decided.
Regarding the decision, Tim Martin said “We are going against conventional wisdom”, this may be true, but I believe that this will not have the positive impact that Mr Martin is hoping to make. In a few weeks time when this strategic move is no longer being spoken about, Weatherspoon’s will be left under represented in the social media world, the ramifications of which are soon to be discovered.
Helena Haycock
