Sometimes Social Media Isn't So Good

While my past two blogs have been raving about the advantages and potential of social media in business, I can't ignore that it does have its down falls. And the consumers, the main driving force behind the success of social media, are also the culprits of the damage. Someone could tweet about a bad experience at a store, or post comments about a poorly produced product on Facebook. In minutes, all of their followers and friends know exactly what's up which could be detrimental to company, especially small businesses.

Social media also let's that "personal" relationship between the customer and a business be forgotten. It's so easy to post an ad on Facebook, send out a Tweet on Twitter or even skim through a resume on LinkedIn. However, it is much more likely that you will sell a product if it is done in person. You can talk to the person, persuade them, see what they're interested in and cater to their needs. A website doesn't have that ability to interact with a customer in that way. In fact, when it comes to clothing 57% of people age 21+ prefer to be in store according to this graph:








Let me just make this clear: I am NOT by any means telling companies that they should not use these social media resources. All I'm suggesting is that they consider the ups as well as the downs of the systems while still taking advantage of theses sites.