Is Social Media Right for Your Business? – Questions to Ask

This past year I’ve received a lot of questions about social media and how it can be used to accomplish an organization’s goals. The main question always comes back to: “Is social media right for my business?” To provide a solution to this question, I developed a series of questions. As you answer them, your goals should be to see where social media fits into your marketing mix and to understand the importance of a social media strategy and communications plan for your business.

Is my audience social media savvy?

• Do they have social media pages?
• What networks are they using?
• Are they talking about my brand?
• How will social media benefit my audience?

How are my competitors using social media?

• What networks do they participate in?
• What type of effort are they putting in?

Am I willing to give up control of my brand messaging?

• What messages can I share with my audience?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses that can be said about my brand?
• Do I have a plan in place to complement the positive conversations?
• Do I have a plan in place to combat the negative conversations?

Are we, as an organization, willing to invite transparency into who we are?

• What are the business ethics around my organization?
• Are there issues or products that we don’t want shared outside of my organization?

Is my organization ready to participate?

• Do we have a social media strategy?
• Do we have a corporate social media policy?
• How does social media complement our other marketing outreaches and goals?

Does my organization have the dedicated resources to effectively maintain a social media campaign?

• Time
• Staff
• Budget
• Partners

I hope these questions help to frame the answer of whether social media is right for your business. Are there other questions that you have asked when starting your social media strategy? What are some of your answers to these questions? I’d like to hear your thoughts.