A friend asked me the other day why companies get involved in social media. After posing her question, she proceeded to answer it herself. “So they can do more advertising and stuff, right?” Wrong. There may be some companies out there that just use social media to further flood the market with their current ad campaign, but there is so much more to social media. And the companies that are truly successful at social media understand that it is so much more.

1. Monitor

One of the most basic functions of social media is to help businesses monitor their name, brand, and products as they’re discussed in the  online world. This is a crucial point that many businesses overlook. There will always be conversations online and in real life about people, places and things and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. But a business can monitor and listen to those conversations and in some cases join in on the conversation. This is particularly important when it comes to negative comments about a company’s product or service. Often a scorned customer can be appeased with a simple acknowledgment of the problem and an apology. People want to be heard and they want people to care about what they have to say. If they don’t feel like they’re being taken seriously, a problem that often times could be quickly and easily resolved, gets blown entirely out of proportion. Look at the apple iphone fiasco. The antenna issue could be easily resolved with bumpers to fix the reception. Had apple immediately acknowledged the reception issue, apologized and said “We’re looking into it,” maybe they wouldn’t be facing a class-action lawsuit. Instead, Steve Jobs chose to deny, deny, deny and they’re in much hotter water because of it.

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