It’s been a busy few weeks for me, and the intensity is only going to continue to ratchet up over the next month and a half or so. I’m signed on for a few speaking gigs and hoping that those opportunities “turn into juice” for doing more local freelancing with businesses here in town. You’d think everything was awesome – and for the most part, you’d be right. I’m happier now professionally than I’ve been in a long time.
But…
You see, there’s this part of social media that I’m finding to be less desirable, and I’m not sure how to jump out of this particular rut without also jumping the shark. I fear losing some of this momentum for the foundational aspects of what I see as a glaring problem for most of the interaction and conversation about social media.
It’s not all about the marketing. It’s not all about the PR. And there’s more to “Social Media For Your Business” than ROI and how can I make money.
And I hate that there’s not more discussion over here, that all the smart talk is on the marketing/PR/MBA side of equation. The “social” part of “social media” should give us a clue to something else that needs to be in place before these other marketing initiatives can really benefit anyone:
- time
- interaction
- content
- design
- consistency
- relevancy
- and more and more and more…
There are baseline things that need to be a part of the toolset BEFORE the PR/marketing machines get involved.
Why?
Because if they’re not there, then all you have is a PR/marketing machine – and that’s just NOT social.
Interestingly, the things you mention that need to be in place – those are exactly the sort of things that go into a well-designed web site too. All forms of online presence require those things – funny how that works. For me, the saddest thing is watching the commercialization of Twitter, which is becoming less and less about socializing and more and more about evangelizing or advertising.
As you said, a lot are missing the social and focusing on the media aspect. I just want what I think I’ve always wanted – talk to me and with me, not at me. Otherwise, it’s just so much spam to me.
I like your comments about Twitter… I have had several twitter accounts at different times, with brief respites for R&R
One thing I’ve noticed with this latest foray into the twitteruniverse is how diversified it has become. I do think the essence of person to person socialization is still present. However, I can now glean more information about hobbies and local activities from the service via B&M places getting on the bandwagon- works for me!
Thanks, Alex & Paul – yes, the social side of the ledger needs more social to be worth anything to us as participants. What I’m thinking in this post is that the business side of things also needs more social – and it’s not just monetary, but a better way of doing business overall.
“And there’s more to “Social Media For Your Business” than ROI and how can I make money.”
Like what? I think the point you’re trying to make is that companies shouldn’t just go for the low-hanging fruit, and that a good social media presence takes an investment in both time and money. Ultimately, though, businesses are here to make money, and in my mind, that’s the only reason a for-profit business gets into social media.
Not true, Jimmy, not true. Well, mostly not true. It’s something that’s changing the way we communicate, and I’m looking forward to the internal variations and collaborative tools still to come. It’s like email – did it save money directly? Probably not, and the overhead of switching everyone was probably a loss. But they’re all there now. And phones before that, right?
Businesses that put money into social media and don’t make a reasonable ROI because of it probably shouldn’t be in business. Money makes the world turn and proven ROI on any social or web effort is a necessity.
It’s great that social media changes the way we communicate, but at the end of the day companies look to social media to drive sales, not aimlessly wander as many widgets as possible to make people think they know what they’re doing. Failed or no social strategy with ROI in mind is like letting Hellen Keller drive you to work everyday and ordering your meal from the drive-thru.
I’m not sure if your point is that you think companies should be less concerned with the ROI, or they should market their products less, or they should be more buddy-buddy with their customers in social media mediums.
The “social” part of social media is the people. Users don’t sign up for Twitter or Facebook because their favorite brand of jeans posts little quips about their product. People join those services because the people they are interested in and care about are there. Facebook and Twitter both had remarkable growth because they focused their product on people. These services were not sold to users as some grand new place to consume information about their favorite brands or companies; they were sold as a place to keep in touch with your friends, share pictures, stories, and opinions with the people you care about.
Businesses don’t care what color shirt you’re wearing today, they don’t care how bad the traffic was on the interstate on your commute to work this morning. Businesses have one underlying interest, and that’s money. Money comes from customers who buy their product or service (you obviously know this). Expecting a business to get “in the conversation” for no other reason than being “hip and cool” is short sighted, and naive. Businesses come to social media because that’s where the people are.
Business are not going to spend resources building a Twitter follower-base or Facebook presence without realizing some return on that investment. Heck, even the users of social networks are getting a return on their investment. A user’s investment is not monetary, it is time. In exchange for your time, Facebook tells you more about your friends that you don’t get to see every day, they keep you in touch with your family, and allow you to share information with groups of people that would otherwise be more difficult to reach. These social tools offer businesses a communication channel that has a huge audience, it allows them to communicate in a way they haven’t communicated before, and it allows them to directly track what kind of response their communication is really getting them.
Ultimately, it all comes back to money. How much does a business spend on building these social presences? Does that investment turn into happier customers and, by extension, more sales? If not, then they’re doing something wrong.
Everything in business is tracked back to how much does it cost, and how much does it return. You don’t hire someone because you’d like to spend 40 hours a week in the same building as them, you hire someone because you think they’re going to add more value to your business than the money that you’re paying them. You start a Facebook page, or a Twitter account because you believe it’s going to make you more money than you were making before you had it.
Now, none of this is to say that social media doesn’t require a different marketing strategy than any other medium. Social media requires a significantly different pitch, a different tone, and a different attitude. Business can certainly get their customers involved and make their customers feel like their opinion is valued, and heard. A lot of companies don’t get this, and they push the same kind of message they push on a television or print ad. Social media requires a different way of thinking, and it’s our job as social media marketers to educate them on how to do this. Telling them that they shouldn’t be concerned with ROI is not going to get us their business. We need to teach and show our clients that they have to interact with their customers differently and that the short-term goals are different, but they will be able to measure this with an increase in their ROI. We need to prove to them that it will work, and teach them how to do it.
Thanks, Jim – you’re right around where I was on my thoughts here. The answer to your opening: “I’m not sure if your point is that you think companies should be less concerned with the ROI, or they should market their products less, or they should be more buddy-buddy with their customers in social media mediums.” is found in your last paragraph just above: “Now, none of this is to say that social media doesn’t require a different marketing strategy than any other medium. Social media requires a significantly different pitch, a different tone, and a different attitude. Business can certainly get their customers involved and make their customers feel like their opinion is valued, and heard. A lot of companies don’t get this, and they push the same kind of message they push on a television or print ad. Social media requires a different way of thinking, and it’s our job as social media marketers to educate them on how to do this.”
I think my point is more that it’s not JUST this or that, especially not JUST about ROI. I think it’s shortsighted to say, also, that it’s ALL about ROI – these tools for communication are going to be more a part of the infrastructure costs with email and phones than other spots on the ledger eventually. Yes, measure what we can measure; yes, make correlations and test the outcomes; yes, be smart and don’t just be on here to just be on here. But in the meantime, ALSO learn how to do it right and how to look at fans/followers as more than demographic test subjects. People see that – the BS meters are amazing online.
If anything, we don’t spend enough time talking about ROI in any meaningful way, and then we don’t spend any time talking about the basics of the medium. Instead, we sit in the comfortable middle of “this is how everyone else is doing it”.