This post by Peter Shankman hits the nail on the head when it comes to discussions about social media.<\/p>\n
I have personally been having discussions lately that social media today is like a web site was 25 years ago. It is the hot word, hot topic. Something every marketer is jumping into. Everyone thinks they need to be in social media and quickly jump into Facebook and Twitter with no idea about what to do. Just like companies did 25 years ago when they said they needed a website, so they quickly built one, but had no idea what to do with it. 25 years ago companies measured website success by hits to their site, eyeballs. The dot bomb was proof that eyeballs mean nothing if you are not making money. Social media is the same… a million Twitter followers is useless if you are not making money. Give me 1000 followers who do engage with me and you can keep the 999,000 other followers who do nothing.<\/p>\n
It is very easy for someone to hit the LIKE button on your Facebook page, and never bother to come back to your page. Does that LIKE mean anything? No! Friends on MySpace, Likes on Facebook, Followers on Twitter… mean nothing if you are not engaging with them. What is your plan to drive all those “eyeballs” back to your website? And how do you plan to convert them on your website? Why are you just driving people to Facebook, for Facebook to monetize them? Get them to your website and convert them!<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts about this? Is there too much attention on the number of Likes, Friends and Followers? Do people “get it”?<\/p>\n
I spent a day last week speaking to a Fortune 100 company about the best ways to integrate social media into their marketing plans, and how best to use social media to help their marketing to continue to generate revenue.<\/p>\n
The majority of questions they asked me afterward fell into the following categories:<\/p>\n
1) So how do we get more followers?<\/p>\n
2) So how do we get more likes?<\/p>\n
3) Should we hold a contest to get more followers\/likes?<\/p>\n
4) How do we get our followers\/likes to spread the word about us?<\/p>\n
These are smart people. These people are the marketing force behind a company that interacts with millions of people through multiple brands every day. These people aren\u2019t stupid \u2013 They didn\u2019t just come off the bus this morning.<\/p>\n
But you say \u201csocial media\u201d to them, and you have the ability to lead them around by waving a shiny object.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, short of a cattle prod, we need to start being more forceful not only with our clients, but our bosses as well? Perhaps it\u2019s time to smack some sense into people, and pull back the curtain? The Emperor has no clothes, Oz is a small old man, and they both need to go back to basics.<\/p>\n
Basic #1: IT\u2019S ABOUT MAKING MONEY.<\/strong>
\nIf you walked into your boss\u2019s office with a marketing plan that involved spending twenty million dollars on advertising, two Superbowl ads, a bunch of events, and fourteen different venue advertisements in nine cities, and the goal of the plan was \u201cto make people like us,\u201d you\u2019d be kicked out on your ass so fast, it\u2019d make your head spin. So WHY IS IT OK to do the same thing by changing \u201cmarketing\u201d to \u201csocial media?\u201d It\u2019s NOT! Everything we do in social media should be tied, in some way, to generating revenue.<\/em> You think that any major company puts together marketing plans without thinking about how it affects revenue? NO! In fact, I was in a meeting with a very large company where the CEO (a brusque, very frustrating man to work with) said it quite effectively: \u201cIf you spend one dollar, it better be to make two.\u201d If we really want social media to be taken seriously, we\u2019ve got to start thinking less like social media geeks, and more like effective marketers.<\/p>\nBasic #2: YOU DON\u2019T MAKE MONEY WITH CONTESTS, PROMOTIONS, OR FREE STUFF.<\/strong>
\nHolding a contest DOES NOT bring in new customers that want to buy. It brings in NEW CHEAP PEOPLE who want to WIN FREE SHIT. Contests are futile for attracting new, spending customers. Want to hold a contest? Do it for the customers you already have!<\/em> Let the contest work on enforcing your brand in their heads, and making them think about how much they love you. Contests and promotions are NOT a good way to drive new, engaged users, and anyone who says differently is lying.<\/p>\nBasic #3: Number of Twitter followers are the new Penis Envy.<\/strong>
\nGary Vaynerchuk said it best: I\u2019d rather have ten followers who engage with me on a regular basis than a million who don\u2019t give a shit. And he\u2019s right. I\u2019m probably one of the only people out there who actively try to GET RID of followers to whom I don\u2019t believe I\u2019m adding value. I\u2019ll actually DM some followers who have never interacted with me and ask them if they\u2019re finding value in my tweets, posts, or the like. If they respond with \u201cno,\u201d I suggest they find other people better suited to following that will provide them with better value. When it comes down to it, the number of followers or fans you have doesn\u2019t matter if nothing you do or say to them moves the marketing and dollar needle in any way.<\/p>\nBasic #4: CONVERSATIONS happen over beers. ENGAGEMENT happens over cash registers. <\/strong> Yes, it\u2019s lovely when a brand converses<\/em> with me. But you know what? A conversation isn\u2019t going to make me buy. A conversation is something I have with my running partner during my cool-down run about how shitty my non-cool down run was. I don\u2019t want to converse<\/em> with Nike or Pepsi. I want them to notice that I\u2019m buying their product and reward me. I want them to help me when I have a question, and I sure as hell want them to engage me when I reach out with a problem. Conversation? Leave that for the Friday night bar-after-work scene.<\/p>\n
Basic #5: Much like charity, all this stuff starts at home.<\/strong>
\nWhen it comes to reacting or putting out fires, social media shouldn\u2019t be your go-to-guy. It shouldn\u2019t be the \u201cOh, not a problem, we\u2019ll just monitor Twitter\u201d common answer. If you\u2019re really good, it shouldn\u2019t even come to that in the first place, because your company\u2019s customer service was so good to begin with, that it never HAD to make it online! I went to Verizon a few weeks ago to see if I could buy the new Blackberry at full price, out of contract. Was told by the woman at the counter that I couldn\u2019t, even at full price. Right there, that should never have happened. It was obvious that the woman behind the counter was reading from a script. I don\u2019t blame her, I blame Verizon for not letting her be adaptable. So I tweet to Verizon about the stupidity of them not wanting to take my money, calling it a fail. After six hours and no response (why does Verizon even HAVE a Twitter account if they don\u2019t use it,) I tweet again about Verizon failing to fix my first problem, or essentially, a double fail. Two days later, I get an email from Doug over at [PR firm name removed after a very humble request], who handles PR for Verizon, asking what happened. I tell him. Guess what happens? HE DOESN\u2019T RESPOND!! Congratulations, Verizon \u2013 You\u2019ve just achieved a triple play of failure the likes of which haven\u2019t been seen since the 1994 New York Mets. Well done.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s simple, people. We either get it, or we get eliminated. Bloody hell \u2013 Is it really that freaking difficult?<\/p>\n