For those of drinking the Kool-Aid, it seems like a no-brainer for companies to embrace social media as a new and different to communicate, market and sell. The number of people using social media and the benefits of getting on the bandwagon appear to be so obvious, any reluctance to at put a toe in the water is puzzling.

Yet, there are many companies still sitting on the sidelines. For whatever reason, they haven’t been convinced yet that social media is worth doing.

In an excellent blog post, Lee Odden said one of the biggest challenges is “most companies are not inherently “social” to begin with”, and that companies struggls to make social media work like traditional tool such as direct marketing, e-mail campaigns, advertising and search engine marketing.

Here are some other major hurdles for companies when it comes to adopting social media:

1. Senior executives don’t use or get social media. If you’re an older, hard-working senior executive, you probably don’t have the time to really check out social media.

It’s something they may have read about in BusinessWeek or seen their children spend hours doing, but blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. don’t seem compelling or interesting enough for them to use. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is what it is.

2. There is no simple way to measure ROI. If companies are trying to apply traditional ROI metrics to social media, it’s a lot like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Social media is a different beast with “hard” and “soft” metrics.

The hard metrics such as Web site visits, leads and sales are easy for executives to understand. The soft metrics such as having stronger relationships with existing and potential customers, improved customer service, a better brand, and being a transparent operation can be difficult to accept when compared with traditional metrics.

3. Many companies cling to belief that if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it. With the global economy appearing to be in recovery mode, many companies have been able to stick with traditional marketing and advertising tools.

Sure, they may be working but it overshadows the reality that social media is quickly emerging as a viable and legitimate vehicle that companies, particularly those focused on the B2C market, need to embrace sooner or later.

4. As Lee Oden also pointed out, many companies have a difficult time trying to understand that social media means they have to change their behaviour.

It means being more transparent and having real-time conversations with customers and potential customers. For publicly-traded companies concerned with disclosure and competitive issues, the idea of allowing employees to talk on public forums is a no-go.

5. The social media ecosystem has done a pretty lousy job of putting the spotlight on social media “success”.

There is no lack of coverage for “lottery wins” as the Old Spice campaign or the video that goes viral but there is arguably not enough focus on stories about companies have enjoyed “normal” success with social media. These companies haven’t made TechCrunch of the cover of AdAge but they have nevertheless been successful in driving new business and engaging with customers.

There are probably lots of other excuses that companies use to not do social media but over time, they will start to lose their effectiveness as social media becomes more engrained as a valuable corporate asset.

What do you think some of the other reasons why companies shy away from using social media?

Tags: Social Media, strategy, success

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 8:03 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.