Social Media Marketing is Misunderstood
I hate the term “social media marketing.” It’s extremely misleading. The “black box” of internet marketing used to be SEO, but now it’s social media. Too many marketers think that social media marketing is simply a chance for one-offs and discounts. If you buy into that philosophy, you’re shortchanging the impact social media can have for your brand online.
Too often, brands hide behind their proverbial chicken suits and try to get some direct response to their marketing message. They blast their sales pitches in digital night clubs, and sometimes it works. Businesses, in turn, continue to employ these poor tactics because they saw a few meager wins.
Further proof that social media marketing is misunderstood are the posts of countless agency employees similar to this one I read last week:
“One more post left before I can go home for the day. My fingers are soooo tired.”
The social media marketing agency that employs this “socializer” is completely missing the point.
Social Media is a Cocktail Party
Everything in the digital world has a real-world counterpart. The real-world counterparts of social media are the cocktail parties after conferences, the after-work hangouts, the weekend get-togethers, and the afternoon play-dates. It just doesn’t make sense to run in there in your chicken suit peddling your products.
I worked for years in the hospitality industry surrounded by this exact nonsense. Just yesterday I saw a string of tweets just like this from Hilton Hotels:
Thinking of booking your summer getaway? If you book 30 days in advance with
#Hilton you can save up to 20% off http://ow.ly/kGpCc
Posts like this are okay every once in a while. But if this is the only garbage you’re posting on social media, your throwing your money away. Sure it will get shared every now and again. Sure you’ll get a few people to buy into the hype of your discounted products or services. But what if you don’t want to discount your business into an early grave? You’ve got to buy into the subtlety of social media.
Social Media Marketing is the Long Con
Social media is a subtle game that needs to be played over a long period of time. Consider your sales funnel. Social media marketing often takes place before your customers ever reach the wide end of that funnel. It’s your opportunity to get people headed toward your sales funnel at some future date.
This is really easy to see for professional services where the main focus of social media marketing is to prove competence. The more people see that you have useful answers to others’ problems, the more people will see you as an authority on the subject. Brands that offer services should be aiming for “thought leadership” within the context of their business.
Social Media is About People
Social media marketing is relationship marketing. You can’t hide behind your branded polo shirts or chicken costumes if you want the socializing at these digital cocktail parties to lead to huge sales results. You need to champion your best people. People do business with people, not with brands.
You’d probably never dream of sending your best people to an industry conference in a chicken costume, but that is exactly what you are doing if you limit your social media marketing efforts to brand posts only. When you hide your people from your potential customers, you limit your most valuable selling propositions. People want to do business with your people, not with your brand.
