Axis Showcases Social Media but Why?

A number of video surveillance companies are exploring social media but is it really worth it? In June 2010, Axis added a page to its website listing its various social media presences online (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.).

Consider this: Axis has about 550 Facebook fans and 450 Twitter followers. However, according to Google, Axis gets 180,000 unique visitors to their website every month -- an incredibly disparity between the two 'groups'.

All the general hype about social media is driven by the fact that celebrities obtain far more social media followers than they would ever get on their website (e.g. fired US late show host has over 1 million followers). To that end, social media is rationally important.

However, if you are Axis or other video surveillance businesses, what's the point of spending your time on social media when you have so many more people going to your website? Plus, Axis has multiple email lists which invariably have far far more members that what they are likely ever to have on Facebook or Twitter.

Axis's social media performance is fairly common. Take Firetide, who is literally on Twitter all day and night. With over 1100 tweets and following over 600 people, Firetide does not even have 1000 followers.

Almost 1 year ago, we argued that 'Social Media irrelevant to security professionals.' In the interim, uptake continues to be slow and we see little reason of the benefits of social media for our profession.