One of the reasons companies are embracing social media is that it’s “free.” Of course, it’s not free at all. There’s little or no cost to use the media, but unless you generate content worth reading and sharing, or start conversations people want to have, it does you no good at all. The trick is understanding that you may need to take some of the money you used to invest in old media and hire someone whose only job is to find fans and followers for you, to generate content on your behalf and to engage in conversations with customers, prospects and influencers. That’s a big leap for most companies to make, even though the math works out in their favor. And that’s one reason so few companies use social media well.
