Social media marketing is important; enough has been said on the
matter. Executing that marketing, however, is a more nuanced affair. It
isn’t simply a matter of “doing it” – there has to be a clear goal in
mind with an overarching ethos and objectives that align with that.
It might sound haughty, especially compared to actual real-life
social interaction. But compare “making friends” with “business
networking.” One is done casually and on a whim, the other is far more
determined and precise.
The problem is, despite the social nature of social media marketing,
too many approaches are just about making friends. Let’s address that
misconception.
Myth 1: Update Constantly
A social channel with nothing on it is a dead one, and nobody will
want to pay attention to it. So nobody will. It’s the same as a Friend
on Facebook who never posts anything; all they do is lurk. With nothing
to contribute, there is no participation in the social community, so
there is no reciprocation.
You could fill your company’s Facebook Page with loads of updates
every minute of every day. And it would all be for naught. Too many
updates often drown out your own posts. If your feed is filling so fast
that nobody can get the opportunity to see a particular post then it
might as well never have been posted.
Also, not all content is created equal. A lot of stuff on your social
channel does not necessarily mean there is a lot of content. Content is
relevant, engaging and sharable. General updates are just filler, they
could possess nothing that makes them noteworthy. An update is a
self-announcement to the world for its own sake; and people may or may
not listen.
Do you pay much attention to that “friend” who always posts about how
bored they are, how they went to the grocery store, and what they’re
making for dinner? Not really, because none of those updates pertain to
you or engage you in any meaningful way. It’s not informative or amusing
to your interests, it doesn’t affect you.
But content should. Content is news, jokes, information, entertainment.
Likewise, do not be tempted to merely repost or reblog. Doing nothing
but reposting other people’s content is easy and quick, but there needs
to be an element of originality. At the very least, make sure your
repostings are unique and come from a diverse and reputable selection;
become a content curator. Your originality can come from your selection.
But really, nothing beats material that comes from your own mouth first and can’t be found anywhere else.
The Truth: Make relevant content, not just filler updates.
Myth 2: Amass Followers
The measures of success on social channels are Likes, Shares,
Subscribes, Mentions, Retweets and Followers. These are numbers tallied
from a single user performing a single task, usually hitting a button.
Having 100,000 Likes sure looks impressive, but what does it really
mean? Are there truly 100,000 loyal fans out there, waiting on your
every word and press release? Or have a bunch of people just hit a
button 100,000 times?
Answer: It’s the latter.
Likes and such are a quick-and-dirty measurement, but really they
don’t hold up to actual conversions. You don’t need Likes just as you
don’t need tallies on a chalkboard, because that is really all Likes
are.
You need an audience base and a way to track them and, more
importantly, an audience that will follow through on your prompts
(conversions). You need people to carry out your calls-to-action, or to
help spread the campaign.
You don’t want drooling masses following you like hungry dogs gazing
after the meat in your hands. You want keenly aware, self-motivated and
ambitious minions to take your cues and move themselves forward.
The more time spent coddling followers, the less time spent
developing and advancing yourself. Let your audience participate and, in
doing so, carry some of the workload. Let them spread the campaign,
persuade others through recommendations on your behalf and provide
feedback on your products.
Your audience should be doing a task, even if that task is simply to
buy into your product. If all they’re doing is hitting a thumbs-up
button, then they’re not doing anything truly meaningful for you.
The Truth: Develop an army of individual assets, not just mindless admirers.
Myth 3: Launch New Advertising
If you want to gain the attention of people on social media you must
promote yourself to them. Use targeted ads relevant to interests,
topical events/holidays and saturate their exposure with your presence.
Sounds simple enough. Yet if you follow this to the letter, you’ll find yourself completed ignored.
If you see ads for Christmas during Labor Day do you immediately
think to start your Christmas shopping when you haven’t even gotten your
Halloween costume ready? Do political ads at every corner only make you
sick and tired of the whole election affair entirely?
These are not effective marketing strategies. Like Myth 1, this is a
wasteful overexposure. You don’t need fluff, and such launches are just
that. A true campaign does not consist of relentless promotion all at
once.
A true campaign is designed to win over people who can be assets, not
just followers. A campaign gets people to redistribute for you, uses
strategies and contests and polls to engage, and employs follow-ups like
e-mail marketing to continue keeping the audience in the loop. A proper
campaign leads into itself and segues neatly into the next; it is not
just one block of commercials briskly followed by another set.
For example, launching new ads just prior to the holiday season is a
slam to the face, while advertising way too soon only spoils the point
of the endeavor. It’s about timing.
A campaign is not just a cost, but also an investment. It should
return multiple values, not just sales. It should bring in leads, new
sub-audiences, more accurate demographics and more people assets.
The Truth: Don’t just launch new ads, create a campaign that caters to the bigger picture.
Myth Busted
These myths really are just traditional marketing techniques as they
apply to existing mediums. But on the social Web people tend to act, and
think, a bit differently. Not in the complete sense, but their
priorities change, and often.
Appealing to them less as consumers and more as participants gives
them the benefit of living out an experience, which serves to build
social bonds. It interacts with the audience on a personal level, which
is what social networking is all about. From a business standpoint, it
is the most cost-effective, as a properly executed social marketing
strategy transfers some of the work onto the audiences themselves.
Correcting these myths is less about going against traditional
marketing strategies, because they really don’t. But it is imperative
that they be followed with this new mindset behind them.
What other “marketing myths” don’t quite apply in the social world, or just need a new perspective?
Vince Ginsburg ,
Post from: SiteProNews
