Companies and Social Media

Are Companies wasting their time with social media profiles?

This has been an age old question since the inception of social media in the early 2000's. Are companies relying too much on social media? should they be bothering at all with social media? all these questions are raised not only by the public but also by the top executivees in these businsesses and they sit at the boardroom table in these meetings and make these decisions.

The fact is that companies cant be without social media. Today when people want to know something about a company, they done want to go onto their website anymore, they check and search on their twitter and facebook and see if the company appears. If you dont appear it could mean bad business as people are not going to look further for information on your company. We want the world at our fingertips and social media allows this everyday. It is also important for companies to have these online presences as stakeholders also look at their profiles. If they want to increase the stakes in the shares or sell their shars they need to know how the company is coping to keep up with the fast paced society. Whoever manages the online aspect of a company also needs to be someone who is very well experienced and trained for the job, as in most company profiles, it is easy to see when it is not a PR person handling the page as they past irrelevant content or they dont respond or react to people's comments.
A good example can be of Spur. Their facebook page is very well managed and when a customer complained that they recieved bad service at a branch, they immediately found out what happned, appologised on behalf of Spur and even gave the customer a voucher towards the next meal. Woolworths is also known for being good with their social media aspects.
Whatever your take is, Social media is here to stay and it is up to companies if they want to join the badwagan or not.

Signing out
Candice Cummings