I read an interesting article from Forbes writer Gene Marks about why some businesses should not invest or get involved with social media. I couldn’t imagine why businesses wouldn’t use it. However, Marks discussed some interesting reasons from a recent Webs.com.survey. The survey revealed the following statistics:

1. 69 percent of business owners say they use social media at their companies.
2. Over 89 percent of businesses reported using Facebook.
3. However, 59.4 percent of those using social media feel that it has not met their expectations.

I found the last statistic shocking, so I conducted more research into this problem and discovered another interesting article by Stanford is Pushing Social called 4 Reasons Why Businesses Shouldn’t Use Social Media.

Of the four reasons, the first one is the strongest: It’s not where your customers and prospects are.

As Gene Marks explains:

“My clients sell things like two-sided polypropylene film, stainless steel coils and ridge ventilation solutions. Know anyone on Facebook looking for this stuff? Probably not.”

I surfed through Facebook communities and tweets in hopes of discovering stainless steel buyers and proving Marks wrong. However, he was right. Stainless steel customers and prospects are not on Facebook or Twitter. Which means they must be somewhere else, but where?

Businesses involved within the Oil, Steel and Construction industry find other ways to build their clients or customers such as referrals, trade associations and tradeshows like the Stainless Steel World Conference & Exhibition. For Marks, this is where his customers and prospects are.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “social media bandwagon” since it is innovative, low-cost and is the new “sexy” trend in communication. But if your customers or prospects are not using it then social media is not for your business.

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