The crush is on. Almost every company, client and person I talk to in corporate marketing wants to create a social media program. But there’s a lot of execution without thinking.
It’s hip, slick and social to have a blog and a Facebook profile, but really, so what? If companies don’t think about their efforts in the larger marketing context as well as the unique needs of social communities, then their efforts will be useless.
The end result? We’re going to be treated to a deluge of bad social media from companies. And in six months we will be hearing cries about how it didn’t work. But the fault does not lie in the medium, rather it’s in the strategy and approach.
The 2008 social media boom is very reminiscent of the mid 90s when everyone needed a web site, but didn’t think about outcomes. Lots of bad sites and mistakes were made. Really, web 2.0 came along as web 1.0 was finally maturing.
Six Common Mistakes
Companies would be well advised to take the time to engage in social media intentionally, with their marketing goals and the long-haul in mind. Here are six common mistakes that should be avoided:
- Launching a social media effort without determining outcomes, calls to action, and measurement. Examine the motives behind launching that blog, filming a "viral YouTube video," or starting that Facebook Group. If companies don’t have a strategy behind their effort, they will lose time, money and opportunity.
- Talking about your company instead of their communities’ interests. It’s about them, not you. Talking about yourself is antisocial and very web 1.0. No one wants a daily updated brochure from company X. See seven principles of community engagement.
- Creating corporate social media without a program to get it socialized. There’s way too many corporate social media efforts now for your effort to just stand out because it’s been started. Where’s the so what? How will your company grab the attention of its stakeholders?
- Blogging because every one else is. Blogs are great, but they require a lot of maintenance and time. This may not be the best engagement strategy for your firm if the company.. Blogs are great for education, position as a market leader, call to action for larger social media initiatives, or for establishing brand reputation. A strong blogger relations and social network program can be more effective for earned media opportunities. Example: Nikon camera program executed by Tom Biro and co.
- Letting IT departments determine the best blog platform, usually the one that comes with their server packs. Bad idea. IT doesn’t understand social media marketing and the benefits of WordPress, or lesser platforms like TypePad.
- Thinking mass instead of micro. Facebook’s a great contact manager, but is it the right place? Are your actual stakeholders out there? Does your community use another, more granular social network as a back channel? Are you and/or your agency constantly monitoring your community’s evolution and consumption needs?
Unfortunately, in some competitive situations, it’s become apparent that agencies and consultants have greatly contributed to this mess. Agencies will tell you they know what they are doing, and learn on your dollar. The price: Lost opportunity, time and financial resources.
Companies need to take the time to find socially engaged companies. Don’t hire people that without a track record. Make sure the actual team performing the work have successfully blogged (please, a bare minimum 20 authority on Technorati), are enjoying social network engagement effort, and have a track record of past successes. And if they don’t advise you on the above six matters, know they are incompetent and continue with your selection process.
More information on social media consultant hiring processes is available from B.L. Ochman, Chris Brogan and Now Is Gone.
Hey, I *like* Vanilla Ice. : )
Looks like quite a bunch of ways to fall into the abyss, and further, I’m always surprised when companies seek to brush aside all the traditional aspects of marketing they were using prior to that point. Not stop them, but give them less weight in the overall equation. I’d say it’s a balance, as are all things in life, eh?
Interesting, and lots to think about.
I think you make some good points, but realize these are experiments. You have to experiment, make mistakes and learn. Its not a good idea to slam corporate media efforts as something from people that “dont get it”. The entire field of social media is fairly new and everyone that claims to be an expert has less than a couple of years of “trying and learning”.
Good post, Geoff. I’m fairly overwhelmed with calls too and most folks can’t even seem to grasp whether they have social media gold sitting right in front of them or whether they’ve got something that may be nearly impossible to promote with anything like true social media. (Yes, we’re only limited by our creativity, witness the “Will it Blend” series, but the point is that some topics are naturals and some require a LOT of creativity.)
We have to start at the beginning, like any good marketing planning exercise.
~Jim Tobin
Thanks, Chris. Always good to see you.
Mukund, I disagree with that assessment. It’s not early anymore. Everyone is trying to do it. When GM lauched a blog it was early.
There’s a ton of published knowledge in social media for folks who want to get educated, including case studies, best practices and more. When companies flub this it’s because they rushed in, didn’t do their homework, and executed poorly.
Like Jim, said you have to start at the beginning and research.
Geoff: Sorry to reach for a buzzword, but social media has a “long tail,” involving long-term commitment, strategy, and tracking, which many larger companies, with their mechanistic thinking of “how do I extract short-term ROI”, simply don’t get. Like you said, it’s another case of online “ready, fire, aim.” Balancing (per Brogan) the benefits of community and value is an evolving proposition.
Excellent thoughts – and I do feel consultants (and agencies who understand this space) will have to discern which clients are worth spending time on. Sounds harsh, but surely there will, and always will be companies who will not be able to see anything but the objective of increasing the bottom line and profits. For these clients, advertising and marketing is the best bet.
But for clients who can see that social media expanses into customer service, product development, and improvement of internal processes – i do believe we will see real results reported.
Very nice post.
Looks like you already answered my question already in your comment directed towards those who are very early in learning and understanding Social Media Marketing.
@Lisa McNeill – So true. It’s so hard reasoning with companies/mgmt who are always in a reactive state.
Amen!
It’s amazing how much companies are grossly underestimating what it takes to genuinely engage in Social Media. They’re hiring “experts” to come in and execute without thinking about why, how, and most importantly, bypassing the necessity to focus on investing in relationships.
Agencies, consultants, you name it, many are guilty of cashing in and as you say, learning on their dollar. It’s not just the money that’s going to waste, it’s also the connections between people that are lost.
Anyone can say “get a blog, let’s jump on twitter, let’s shoot viral videos, build a group in facebook, blah blah blah…” But, it’s the strategy and intent behind it. It’s figuring out why what you have to say will matter to the people you want to reach and what are their preferences for discovering new content. It’s about value add and not marketing.
I have lost new opportunities to companies and independent professionals who I KNOW are among those polluting the SocialMediaSphere because they talked a better game and promised the world. Some companies just don’t want to listen and I refuse to sell beyond my means or close business b/c I simply said what they wanted to hear.
This is only going to get more crowded. And as PR does so well, we’ll spin this to the point of parity between experts and novices, leaving companies to try to sort through the BS and the value.
Adding to what Lisa said about agencies/consultants having to decide what clients are worth spending time on, they (we) also need to be able to tell clients the ugly truth: we can’t do it without them. Engagement via blogs, communities, etc is an on-going commitment and if the client isn’t fully committed to staying engaged, it’s not going to work.
We can advise clients on the proper blogging strategy. We can even write the blog for them. But if they aren’t going to take it seriously – working with us on content, quick turn-around on approvals, etc. – then it’s never going to work.
Clients love the idea of outsourcing the whole thing and not having to think about it, but there’s only so much even a “full-service” agency can do if the client isn’t actively participating. If we don’t have the guts to tell clients that, we’ll be wasting a lot of time on projects that don’t have a chance of succeeding.
David: You are right, and it is not a quick remedy. You can’t rob Tather Time of time.
Lisa, Brian (what’s up!) and Melanie: Yes, it appears we are all experieincing the same kind of demand. I am seeing a lot of the same, and it is becoming apparent that some clients are not worth having.
In one instance, I had a potential client stand up an scream at me about message control, and how it was BS that you couldn’t keep control.
There’s going to be a lot of bad social media this year. It’s best if our names are not associated with it…
Sonny, thanks for coming by.
this is just like the industrial revolution! I bet mechanics were sitting around debating best practices or lack thereof. we know how that story ends..
ith everybody and her dog calling themselves social media marketers, it is hard for clients to separate the wheat from the chafe.
I have to agree that many clients are simply not worth having. But the ones who are willing to collaborate in social media, who’ll make a long-term commitment to it and who’ll open their minds to new ways of doing business can reap enormous benefits.
sadly, a lot of big agencies sell better than consultants who have the real goods, and so a lot of pioneers will be shot as always happens in the face of change.