What Gen X and Y Don't Get About Social Media Marketing

As an MBA student taking many marketing classes, all day, every day, I hear about how businesses should use social media. As a marketing student, I completely agree. But what I hear a lot, and COMPLETELY disagree with, is that businesses should utilize EVERY type of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Google Plus, Pinterest, Foursquare, LinkedIn, even Pinterest, businesses should be there. No matter what business, they should join every social media site out there and upload, post and gain a following (and they should do it today).

I completely disagree with this sentiment. In my eyes, as well as many of my fellow Millennials, trying to accomplish this feat is totally ridiculous, not to mention a bad business practice for many companies. Many professors recommend that businesses join every site, friend everyone, post everything, no matter what company you are, and what marketing strategy your company has. I think this really shows the generational gap when it comes to social media and social media marketing.

Some social media sites are simply a waste of time and employee hours for certain types of companies. John’s mom and pop sub shop does not need to tweet four times a day, and McDonald’s does not need a Snapchat account. In fact, responses to the hashtag promotion campaign, #McDstories, makes me wonder if they should even bother with a Twitter account at all.

Like everything in marketing, social media needs to be carefully planned and strategized. Joining a social media website for no strategic reason is a waste of time, and the lack of followers your account gains (due to the inappropriate nature of your company’s relationship with that social media website) will actually hurt many customers’ view of your company. To be successful, choose the right platforms, create good content, and monitor your feeds and likes. If you cannot manage to do so, and I sure many of my MBA marketing classmates would be happy to be hired to do it for you.