The Faces of Social Media

The more you use social media for your business, the more it may seem that it has many different faces. Sometimes it seems as though it it is a public relations tool and sometimes it seems as though it is an advertising tool and sometimes it seems as though it is a marketing tool.

Which one is it?

You are probably wondering which of social media’s faces is the real one and which ones are merely perceptions. The answer is that it is all that it appears to be. In fact, a lot of what social media is (or at least, what it seems to be) is dependent on who is actually managing it in the first place. Your approach to social media and how it affects your business will affect the outcome of how other people perceive you and your brand. Many businesses think of their social media efforts as an extension of their public relations efforts. The reason for this is that those companies are connecting their brand and the people who will be buying their products and services. One critical building block on your business’s path to greater success is creating buzz for the business. The buzz will bring a greater return on investment (ROI), which will ultimately lead to greater success.

Setting objectives

It is very important to set up objectives regarding what you want your business to accomplish and surrounding yourself with the right people to realize those objectives. Because social media works in real time and the interactions that you have with other people are fresh and in the moment, it has a public relations “flavor.” In fact, you have no choice but to respond in a timely manner to whatever the other person is saying or asking. From the PR angle, that timeliness is required and PR can’t function without it. Also from a PR perspective, the connections that you have with many different people makes things move along effectively. On the other side, by nature, PR understands how to deal with negative feedback as well and damage control will be effective and quick in most cases.

However, with that said, social media, as an entity, is not stagnant. It is constantly changing and the evolution lends itself well to highlighting products and services from a marketing/advertising perspective. With that said, advertising works well in that context and your desired result of getting people to buy into what you are offering will happen. Whether you consider your social media efforts from the PR or advertising perspective, you are working toward the same inevitable end, which is more success.

It is largely up to you

You can choose which approach  you want to take for your business, depending on what you think feels right to you. In either case, you must use social media to showcase your products and/or services. You should examine your business goals and figure out what works best. One thing that is for sure is that no matter which approach you take, you need to use social media to take you from Point A to Point B. You owe it to your business to take advantage of all of the technological tools that you have at your disposal, or at least the ones that make sense for your business.

Conclusion

Social media has many different facets and several different ways that you can use it to acquire greater success for your business. One thing that is certain is that you need to continue to interact on social media channels for your business. One of your main goals is to share valuable information and thus grow the relationship accordingly. How people do business lately has changed dramatically and social media, even with its many faces, must be a part of the interactions no matter what your approach. Everyone is interacting on social media and you can’t allow you and your business to be left in the dust.