I hear this phrase all the time in the executive protection and security industry. Let’s look at the definition of necessary evil:
“something you do not like doing but which you know must be done, or something you do not like but which you must accept”1
So you don’t like doing “Social Media.” When someone makes a statement like that to me it means they are not using social media effectively. They look at it as hard labor, when in actuality it’s simply a conversation, but the key is having the appropriate conversation with the appropriate people. People that are like-minded, share your passions; people who share knowledge, expertise, to help excel in reaching your goals; people who could be potential clients.
Social media is not a necessary evil, but rather a necessary tool for: establishing, managing and marketing your brand, creating and extending your network of like-minded individuals; for finding job opportunities to name a just a few. Most executive protection companies, business owners, or contractors don’t even attempt to use social media as a marketing tool.
It’s necessary because your competitors are already on social media channels like Facebook. Don’t think so? Do a search on Facebook for your competitors company name – my guess is several of them will be in the search result list.
It is a necessary tool to help you build your brand. You are 1 person or company among thousands. No one knows who you are, what you do, who you do it for and what makes you different. How are you going to tell your story? How are you going to reach the right people?
It is a necessary tool to manage your brand. Things are going pretty well at your company, but someone starts spreading rumors on social media that you are short changing your contractors and keeping the money for yourself. You start to lose business, you’re trying to figure out what’s going on but since you’re not actively managing your brand, actively listening for the mention of you and your business through various social media channels you have no idea.
It’s a necessary tool to market your brand. What’s the first thing someone does when they need a problem to be fixed? They go to the internet for a solution. They ask their neighbors, friends, business associates and colleagues. How are people going to find you if you don’t have a website or a Facebook page? Social search is now fully operating in the big 3 search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo). Let me ask you this – who would you more likely use to fix your plumbing? AAA plumbing who you don’t know from Adam, or BBB plumbing which three of friends have tweeted about, and 2 other friends wrote comments about and highly recommend them?
It’s a necessary tool to create or extend your network. Reaching out to like-minded individuals who are in the business on Facebook and Twitter and other social media channels. So when the phone rings and you need three guys you know exactly who to go to, and if you can’t do it, you know who to recommend, who you trust and why.
Still think social media is a necessary evil? Post in the comments below.
1 Taken from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Cambridge University)