The following is a recent discussion in one of the Social Media groups on LinkedIn. As always, I’ll keep the individuals anonymous and only identify by their Linkedin description. The discussion was started by a Digital Marketing Consultant. Not only did he ask the question, he provided his answers as well.

Five Questions Your Boss Will Ask About Social Media (and the answers)

1. Isn’t social media just a new type of ad?

No it’s more than that, it’s actually a whole new way of reaching clients. If you think of ads as one technique used to communicate your value to prospects, social media is a whole new channel to do this. Yes you can still communicate your value but rather than trying to cram it all into one sentence (as you would with an ad) you have to be a bit more patient.

2. Isn’t all this social media stuff expensive?

Well yes and no. From a cash investment perspective, most of the top online social media services are free of charge to register with. However, to really make an impact through these tools you need to spend a lot of time on them. You have to explore, see who’s talking about things related to your company and try to open up a dialogue with them in a non-creepy way.

3. But I hear it’s all a fad anyways

Certainly various social media services will come and go and some will be a bit more gimmicky than others, but the underlying principle of social media, transparency, is hard-coded into the very DNA of the world wide web. If you can build your social media ‘muscles’ on one tool you’ll quite easily be able to transfer this skill set and mentality to other tools.

4. It’s all very well to make ‘friends’ online but SHOW ME THE MONEY

There are clear cut and well documented examples of companies making money from social media. But it doesn’t quite work like a typical print/online ad. You’re not likely to get a flood of business from your first blog post, your first message on Twitter or your first video uploaded to Youtube. But as you start developing a base of followers you can really start to leverage the power of social media. Imagine having a few thousand online users following your every uttering on Twitter, or subscribing diligently to your blog updates. These become powerful channels for launching new products, promoting special offers and even testing products.

5. Ok, so I guess we’ll need to hire some guru to get us set up?

By all means if you can hire one of the multitude of talented social media gurus and specialist agencies. But I think you’d do just fine with a couple of diligent, friendly and passionate members of staff. After all, you and you’re staff know your product and your clients better than any guru. Also, in the world of social media, an authentic, if perhaps clumsy approach trumps a polished but scripted approach. People can usually see through that quite quickly and your credibility will drop dramatically.