It’s a common, and possibly over-analyzed, topic. One that has been discussed at nearly every social media conference I have attended. Yet, I’m going to broach the topic again. Should you engage in social media?

Instead of debating the pros and cons of engaging in social media, I’m going to take a slight detour.  If you can’t or aren’t willing to engage, you at least need to monitor.

I think one of the largest misconceptions among organizations not involved in social media is that, if they don’t have a social media presence, nobody is talking about them. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Even if you aren’t on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and/or the like, people are still not only talking about you, but also to you.

This dilemma reminds me of one of my favorite tweets from TJ: If a personalized, targeted pitch falls in the forest and doesn’t make a sound, does the flack exist? Well, if a complaint lands on Twitter and the company in question doesn’t know about it, is the tweeter still dissatisfied? The answer, obviously, is ‘yes.’

If the bakers at Cupcakes’r’Us are in the kitchens crafting confections, and a disgruntled consumer quips about a poorly iced cupcake on Twitter, Cupcakes’r’Us may never know about it. That doesn’t mean the consumer’s 2,500 followers haven’t made a mental note to never visit Cupcakes’r’Us again. While it only takes one influencer to start a World Wide Rave, it also only takes one naysayer to start the decline of a brand’s reputation. Hence, if you can’t/won’t engage, you still need to monitor.

We all know that time is money – Google Alerts, Twitter Search and search engines in general exist for a reason. Take the five minutes you spend sipping coffee and search while you sip. Show your customers that you know where they are and what they are saying about you, even of their communication platform of choice isn’t one where your brand engages.

To me, this is common sense. Or as Keith would say, common sense done right. Yet I see volumes of customer service complaints for a multitude of brands representing a diverse range of industries go unanswered each day – and that’s just on Twitter!

To that end, do your favorite social media-absent brand a favor and print out a few anti-brand tweets or this blog post for their review. The sooner they monitor, the better off they will be.

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