I recently joined a new group on LinkedIn, and one of the most popular discussion was "In one word what is the biggest challenge facing social media in business" - it's a great discussion, and had over 1.000 comments. Scrolling through the responses the more popular challenges other users suggested where, Content, Time, ROI & Conversion (technicality two words, but they do go together), and Engagement. I completely agree with all of these, they are a huge challenge.
To me, the single biggest challenge facing social media in business is education.
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Workplace Education
I'm not talking educating your audience, they get it, but education internally within your business, ensuring your colleagues understand the benefits of social media, what to say in a tweet, influential people to connect with, exactly what is a hashtag, what circles to join, what is a Google hangout, Joining Twitter parties, how to write effective blogs, promoted tweets, LinkedIn advertising, Facebook Landing pages, how to use Twitter at a conference and the difference between friends and fans on Facebook. I'm not talking educating your audience, they get it, but education internally within your business.
Even the CEO needs to understand Social Media
This is all basic stuff for a professional social media guru, but for those colleagues who know they should be using Social Media but don't know anything about it, and that includes the CEO, Operations Director, Chairman, Sales Director and Financial Controller.
If senior leadership team aren't onboard with your Social Media strategy and have an understanding of the plan, they won't know what social media can actually achieve for your business, then it's going to be one hard ride to keep it going.
"Educate the team, live the Social Media Dream!" - TWEET QUOTE
Cheesy I know, but it gets the point across
