How Important is Social Media to Your Business or Organization?

Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is head downstairs and feed the dog and cat. The next thing I do is put some coffee beans in our manual burr grinder and start cranking the handle. It can be a rather annoying task when you’re in a hurry and have other things to do, but when our electric grinder died, we moved to the manual grinder to get better tasting coffee.

You see, coffee is important to us in our house. We prefer whole bean over ground. We prefer grinding it by hand, rather than in a machine. Many might not notice the difference, but it really is worth it. Oh, sure I could save some time and grind it the night before, and set the timer on the coffee machine to have my coffee ready for me when I awaken, but I think the end result of my method is better. It’s more satisfying and produces better results.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a nuisance, but it’s worth it. And at the end of the day, I don’t sit back and bemoan the few minutes of time I wasted while grinding the coffee.

When I work with small businesses and nonprofits, I often hear them complaining about how they don’t have any time for social media. They want to do it, but it takes time away from the other important stuff that they have to do. They don’t know how to fit it in, and therefore it often falls by the wayside.

And therein lies the problem:

It’s important. But is it important enough?

If you value something and find it important, you’ll find the time–make the time–to do it. One of the phrases I hear most often about social media is:

I don’t know anything about how to do it, but I know it’s important.

They come to me for help with their online presence, and while this is all new to them, they say they value it. But when I start talking about strategies and implementation, they become overwhelmed, and once again, social media gets thrown on the back burner. It goes to the bottom of the list of things to do. And they begin to rationalize that, well, it’s free, so it must not be all THAT important. Meanwhile they move on to designing and approving their latest newspaper ad or Yellow Pages ad. THOSE things are more important, because, well, they’ve been doing them for years, and they will make time for them. And because they are used to placing ads, when it comes to the online space, digital advertising is the first place they look, rather than true social media endeavors or content marketing.

Here’s the thing: only you can determine the importance you place on social media and digital marketing. And only you can then determine whether you act on that importance.

I’ll say it again: if you value something and find it important, you’ll make the time to do it. If social media is important, you’ll make sure it fits into your schedule and becomes an important part of your marketing mix.

How important is social media for you? Where does it fit along with your other priorities?

via:http://inklingmedia.net/2014/03/11/social-media-pecking-order/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InklingMedia+%28Inkling+Media%29#.UyItSj9dXGA