A lot of companies and organisations have been attempting to use “social media” as part of their “marketing mix”.
I say “attempting” and not “using”.
Why?
Put simply, you get the distinct impression that a lot of organisations are working from a checklist.
If they’re really “advanced” they’ll connect a couple of them together, so that their Twitter updates appear on their blog.
They then pat themselves on the back and sit back.
But what about the various elements they’ve put online?
The blog posts are mainly pure marketing and sales pitches ….
The Facebook presence isn’t pushed or used, so it lies dormant gathering “virtual dust”
And the Twitter account is used for blasting more marketing messages into an empty space.
End result. Their online venture probably underperforms, even though they’ve probably paid a silly amount of money to a “consultant” whose credentials were probably incredibly thin..
So what should they be doing?
How should they be doing it?
Should they even do it?
How can they be shown that doing it properly may pay dividends?
Comments
5 responses to “Social Media Is Not A Checklist”
Problem here is that, the majority of these people don’t understand that to truely leverage social media, the conversation needs to be two way. Coming from traditional push marketing backgrounds, and attempting to create the message in the same way just wont work. Engagement is where its at.
I think a lot of people also underestimate the time it takes to do it right and abandon ship before they start reaping the benefits especially the community aspect.
Both of you have made very valid points 🙂
So how can we help people?
I also think that often as many social media platforms are ‘free’ and have a low barrier to entry, that many small businesses are starting to explore them (though I’d like some larger organisations do more too) – which is great – however just because you can does not mean that you should.
I’d suggest that we help and encourage people to:
1. get clear about their business goals and who they want to connect with
2. learn to listen what people are talking about – competitors, customers and potential clients
3. establish their goals for their social media plan
4. develop a plan for their content
5. explore and prioritise one or two platforms that they think would be relevant for their audience
6. direct them to resources that they can use to learn and then apply the ideas to their business – from speaking to others, reading or attending events and workshops
7. and encourage them to test, measure, adapt.
Looking forward to finding out how the ‘SocialMediaExpert.ie’ planning to help us all in this changing world.
Krishna De
Thanks for your comments.
We’ll see how things pan out here 🙂