We were recently at a business meeting with 35-40 senior business leaders and were asked some questions by a couple of attendees regarding the relevance of social media to their business leader and ministry members.  “Is social media marketing relevant to our audience?  What about our age audience?”

When we do presentations on Social Media around the country, we still find people who don’t understand the business or organizational value of social media involvement.  As social networks become even more ingrained into the fabric of society and culture, nearly every faith-based business or ministry can find relevancy in maintaining an active social media presence.

Each social network appeals to a specific group of people, which will help you to decide which social networks are most relevant to you and should be leveraged by your business.

For example, LinkedIn, the BIGGEST global business leader connection, is the “business meeting” or “chamber of commerce” of social networks, if you will.  Twitter is the news feed of the current era, and Facebook is the cool hang-out for friends, where public image and branding reign supreme.

Here are a few more of our thoughts to answer the question of social media relevancy:

– Age no longer matters.  Social media has grown far beyond the cool youth culture thing it started out to be.  To bring this closer to home, my aunts, uncles, and grandparents use social media, which means if you are a organization marketing to an older demographic, there is a social media audience of potential customers, or donors.    That puts usage into the 80+ year old age group.  If your company doesn’t engage in social media because your market is the “50+, non-tech business guy or gal”, then there two major flaws to that strategy, 1) many of those in that market are now the “50+, social media-using business guy/gal”, and 2) that audience is already shrinking every day. Can you afford to miss potential customers?  Relevant?  Check!

– Social Networks now have so many active members that your absence from these online communities leaves you disconnected and irrelevant to potential clients.  Think of the social media sites as some of the largest, countries in the world.  If your organization doesn’t plant an embassy in each of those countries, you don’t even enter into the choice set for your target audiences.  You are out of touch with the current events and trends in those countries.

-If that isn’t enough motivation, you better believe that other organizations which are competing for your target audiences’ attention are already using every means possible, and some would love to put you out of business – engaging in social media might be the least of your worries.  Relevant?  Check!

– Organizations that want to stay afloat in today’s new world need to not only jump in the “raging river” of technology, but to navigate it, and let the water work for them, instead of struggling and….drowning.  Not only do you need to be involved in this technology, but you can’t afford to do it poorly.  Poor swimmers face just about as much peril as non-swimmers.

Social media marketing was a flash flood that only recently hit us all, and many organizations are struggling to get on board.  It’s just another example of survival of the fittest.

The businesses and ministries that survive are the ones that navigate technology successfully.

If you are involved with a company or ministry that is struggling to find your “water-legs” or have questions about navigating the river of social media, please contact us.  We are ready, willing, and able to be your social media lifeboat.  FrontGate Media has been a leader in Social Media since 2007…