Creative Services Company Blog

Everyone without a fork in their head understands the importance of social networking in business these days. The biggest social media site today is, of course, Facebook. You MUST have a Facebook page, right?

It should seem pretty straight forward and the answer should be a loud resounding Y.E.S! But… Yes, there is always a ’but’, there must be balance. Without the correct balance a Facebook page can do more harm than good. You can’t believe someone finally said that out loud, can you? It’s true, at least in my own experience.

As an example, I’ll talk about how having a Facebook page can effect blogging. I know, blogging is hardly the kind of business most of us are concerned with but it’s still business and any third grader will be able to relate the experience with other forms of business.

Ok, so we spend a solid year building a site/blog following. We now have a nice contact list built and every blog post generates dozens of comments. We finally have the reputation we strived for and the user interaction we’ve been looking for. Now it’s time to start converting this mild success into a revenue stream with a little monetization.

All of the sudden, social media has taken the net by storm. Hey, I’m not going to be one of those old dinosaur business models that miss the virtual boat. After all, I’m a blogger and I’m internet savvy and everything.

So with the help of Google search, YouTube videos and other bloggers, we start putting together a great looking Facebook page. Once refined and looking its best, we need people. Just like a blog, there’s nothing worse than an empty, inactive Facebook page. And also just like a blog it’s going to take effort to build that page up.

Ok, fast forward many sleepless nights of socializing and contact building. We now have a blog and a Facebook page, both fairly popular. Then we begin to notice an unexpected trend. Blog comments are down, only replaced with Facebook comments. I have plenty of ‘likes’ and a lot of people are commenting but not on my blog.

Wow, I need my following on my blog. No one’s being exposed to my clever ads and great offers. Facebook won’t let me put the ads on my page there and that’s where everyone seems to interact now. And, sure, why wouldn’t they? Facebook has made it about as easy as it can be to click that like button or even type a fast sentence or two and move on. And they don’t even have to worry about spelling or punctuation anymore. “kul hat, gonna git 1 of those soon” is just considered social savvy.

What we need is balance. If your brand isn’t already Nike®, you need to allow Facebook to compliment your business, not take it over and replace your client base with ‘friends’. Personally, I’m glad to see the dilemma. Social media has lent even more purpose to my business of consulting. Thank you Facebook, I owe you big.

Tags: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking

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