Some marketers still missing the point...socially
I am compelled to comment on an article in Marketing Charts ‘Social Media Generates Hype; Fails to Deliver Marketing Punch’ because comments in the article underscore the problems organizations have harnessing the power of social media.
Some excerpts:
* Despite its popularity, socnet platforms - including Facebook, Twitter and the like - have failed to demonstrate prowess as marketing tools, and possibly never will.
* “Obviously, a lot of people are using social media, but they are not explicitly turning to it for marketing purposes, or for finding out what products to buy.
* “[Twitter is] more of a media industry thing right now. Twitter is less a way to directly reach customers, and more a way to reach passionate voices who may influence perceptions of your brand.
First, I believe social media is new and has a long way to go, but to state that it has failed to demonstrate prowess as a marketing tool is a bit short-sighted. As my previous blog post discusses, social media is a part of the marketing tool-kit and another way to reach consumers/customers. The problems I see today are common: Companies jumping on social media, tactically, without rolling up to an objective. You probably can’t measure something that isn’t tied to a relevant measurable objective at the start. Are you trying to engage, get feedback, send promotions, announce new products, generate new business…etc. Companies need to start there.
Second, the article above focuses only on social media’s effectiveness as a ‘word of mouth’ tool so here’s a thought: Yes, SoMed (as I like to call it) can enable WOM only to the extent that people/customers/consumers are using it. But those using are generally the innovators or early adopters. These individuals are spreading the word and look at social media as just one piece of THEIR communication tool-kit. So they are also talking to people (wow), texting, emailing, calling…Flip the perspective and you can use the SoMed activity directionally and try to estimate the overall WOM activity. I would be interested in finding those statistics.
And finally, not to ‘sell’ the Twitter concept, as yes again, many people are not finding the value; however, Twitter’s value is really for business vs consumers. Obviously Twitter realizes this also and is looking at business applications and analytics as a way to finally monetize their service.
What do you think?
Jackie
Categories: marketing tips,strategy
Tags: relevant marketing tips social media
Excellent post, Jackie. I couldnt agree more. I get numerous marketing and SoNet feeds per day, and have seen similar articles lamenting that SoNet is not the magic potion everyone expected. That's more because it doesnt broadcast, but connects. Its a one-to-one world, not a many-to-many or even one-to-many world anymore. Marketers need to understand SoNet's power and use it in ways to connect on a different level than traditional media. You and I are hardly single voices in the wilderness...the media hype surrounding the "failure of Twitter" and the "failure of SoMed to impact sales metrics" just means that the clueless still exist. BTW, did you see the article about how baby boomers are ruining Twitter and Facebook? I will post it to Facebook.
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Social media was not initially created as a marketing tool, it's not supposed to generate direct sales but indirectly I think social media has a very important potential in directing people toward brands. Marketing is supposed to be social, the sooner we understand that the better we'll know how to handle it.
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