“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullshit.“
I have heard that phrase above many times over the years, but it has never seemed more true to me than now. This social media post has been brewing with me for a while, so bare me with me as I get out my frustration.
I am frustrated by the social media crap that is spewed out by “experts”. Let’s go through my hot list of thoughts from the experts, one by one:
- Curate Conversation
- Social Media is Transparent and Informal
- Do Unto Others …
- Website Social Media Buttons
- Social Media Success Stories
- It will save your revenue problems
What does that even mean? I assume the root of that means to have conversation with people online. Well, the truth is you have work to do. You have invoices to pay, inventory to keep up with, current customers to service and so much more. You cannot spend the day trying to get conversations started or interrupting current conversations. There is no time in your day for that.
The idea is that curating conversations produces future customer. Yes, I get that. You know what else creates future customers? Taking care of current customers.
If social media is about conversation, then why waste your time? Social media is about links, exposure, customer service, sales, branding, and more. Social media is about whatever you need it to be about.
Do you really want to be transparent? And … yes, you should be worried about your social media comments. Spelling and grammar does matter. You are not a teenager texting with emoticons. You are a professional. Act like one. People are judging you every day, by every tweet and every comment you leave. Your customers may not want you to be casual, “cool”, or even funny. Talk to them with the correct language. Do not try to be hip, just because it feels right.
Thanks for the bit of insight, Genius. Let me get this right, if I am nice to people, they will be nice to me? Wow, and you get paid for that bit of advice?
This has been around since the age of business. It is called … wait for it … Customer Service. Treat your customers well and they will reward you. That is brilliant. Call me a “Guru”.
This can be tricky. I do believe it is important in add social media connections to your site. In fact, my social media buttons could not be in a more prominent place. But then again, I am not selling a product.
I have seen too many sites that are putting way too much focus on their social media buttons. If someone is on your site, now is the time to convert them. Do not send them to Facebook, if they have a credit card in their hand. Remember why you are in business.
There are tons of success stories using social media, but those are not going to help you. The solution that worked for them, will probably not work for you. You need to crawl and you need to fail. There is not a social media formula. You have to create your own success story.
Social media will not fix your business problems. In fact, it will magnify them to the world. Social media can get you in front of a larger audience. The question is… are you ready for a larger audience?
Social media will not fix your marketing problems. If you are having trouble getting a message out or having trouble determining what your message is, you do not need a social media marketing expert. You need marketing. Not social, not viral, not search, not interactive … just marketing.
So, now what?
Let’s be clear where I stand here. I am an advocate of social media. I use it often. It can be a valuable tool for you. However, keep it in perspective and take social media for what it is.
Social media is a lot of things. Social media is …
• A marketing channel.
• A communication device.
• A help desk.
• A customer service center.
Social media can also be …
• An employee drain
• Full of spammers and “experts”
• A broadcast message board
• A waste of time
• A great way to connect with friends and family
Social media is whatever you make of it. It is not what someone tells you to do with it.
In fact, maybe you are not even ready for social media at all. You may need some other form of marketing first. Jennifer Evans Laycock, of SugarSpun Marketing, wrote two great posts on how to know if it’s time for social media or search marketing: How to Know When Your Site Needs Social Media Before SEO and How to Know When Your Site Needs SEO Before Social Media
Social media is another avenue for you to establish a customer relationship. However, you have multiple channels. Do not sacrifice all of those, because the “experts” say you are using social media wrong. There is no right way to use social media. Just get in there and start using it.
Tags: Facebook, Social Media, Twitter« « Meet My Friends | My SES Schedule » »
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
You’re right, John, there’s a lot of bullshit out there. I loved this post and one particular thing that you pointed out that I really loved and tell to people I work with is that social media is not one, specific thing. It’s not a set of rules you have to follow, not a procedure to put in place, social media is what you make of it.
One thing that has eeked it’s way in is the importance of labels. People who are “experts” or “gurus” or “5 ways to increase blah, blah, blah” and the like. Social media is a communication channel, just like the TV and phone before it and it is up to us to find out the best uses for it. When you throw all your eggs in one basket, that basket becomes increasingly hard to carry.
Thanks for posting this and we should all be on the lookout for more bullshit like this.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:16 pm
John, tell us how you really feel!
I agree that social media is and will continue to be a huge way that companies and people will gather and communicate to their customers.
I will also say that I think social media has been seen as a silver bullet that will instantly make all ills go away. Just as Joey said, social media is another channel or tool that a business can use. What it can’t replace is hard work and I think that is lost. It takes a lot of hard work do to social media right.
Thanks for the post!
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
@joey – Thanks for the comments. Yes, keep a look out for me. If you see any B.S, share it with me.
@matt – Yes, it’s how I really feel, ha! It’s been brewing with me for a while. It finally all fell out into a blog posts. You are right on about the “silver bullet”. It’s not a replacement for hard work.
-John
January 27th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Thank you John!
I have lots of gripes about social media that have little to do with business or marketing and more to do with an ever increasingly narcissistic world. I’ll use my own space for those grumbles.
However, yesterday I killed my Facebook account. Yep, personal and business page gone. I take photos for walls and I encourage photos to go on walls. Real ones, not Facebok ones…So, I’m not going to be present on Facebook. If I do a good job providing service and photos, and my clients want to talk about me on Facebook; great! I don’t have to be there for other people to talk though.
This is one of my favorite posts. Bullshit indeed.
Jebb
January 27th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Jebb,
Thanks for the comment. This post came out of frustration one day seeing what a few “experts” were selling.
I still think there is a need for social media. In some cases it works extremely well.
However, it may not for everyone. You know your clients better than anyone and if it’s not going to help, then I agree with your decision.
-John
June 7th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Great post.
July 12th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I completely agree with you John. It is hard to type up a bullet proof case of this so that people can’t jump on you, but many people are overlooking big opportunities that have much stronger ROI with less effort. Everyone gets caught up in the Social Hype. As you said, there is a lot of value to Social but people need to ensure they are optimally prioritizing their efforts to maximize their return and build a sustainable business during these challenging economic times.
Great job, stirring the pot and look forward to more great posts.
September 14th, 2011 at 8:05 am
John once again quickly points out the importance of perspective. Yes, sometimes it is as simple as common sense in basic understanding of channels, their impact and how to efficiently use resources to acheive business results. This said the best, IMO, use of resources is a very high level monitoring and focusing on one or two key players. This said, what keeps me up at nights, is the strategy of Google and Facebook in moving into online booking. Of course I imagine that Expedia and Orbitz are up at night to; worrying about their future.