(Amazing Gangsta Chimp image by the talented Matt Cioffi)
You may have heard of social media. There’s been a bit of news about it recently. However, a lot of people making that news have created expectations and beliefs about social media that aren’t true.
1. Social Media is Inexpensive
False. As Charlene Li said recently, social media trades media cost for labor cost. Done correctly, social media – even a simple reputation monitoring program – is a time intensive proposition that requires daily vigilance.
2. Social Media is Fast
False. Social media is by definition slow. Done correctly, social media is about developing meaningful relationships with customers and prospective customers in their natural habitat. That’s not a “wave the magic wand” scenario. You have to create content, be part of many communities, and proceed incrementally. Many successful social media programs take months (or even more than a year) to really germinate.
3. Social Media is “Viral Marketing”
False, in the same way that a square is also a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square. Can a social media program go viral? Absolutely. But if you’re engaged in a social media program in an effort to go “viral” you’re not really engaged in social media at all. You’re engaged in an advertising and marketing campaign that uses the Web as its distribution platform.
4. Social Media results can’t be measured
False. Especially in comparison to many other communication programs like traditional PR, TV advertising, outdoor advertising and others, social media actually offers pretty solid metrics. Many social media software packages (great ebook analysis of them here) can provide highly detailed reports on the impact of social media programs. Can those results be tied back directly to sales, and therefore ROI? Probably not yet, but other than search and email (and maybe banners) where CAN you do that?
5. Social Media is optional
It doesn’t matter what the demographics of your customers are. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. Your customers and prospects are talking about you online. Your company needs to be part of that conversation. Today. Online is where many people do their talking, so that’s where you need to be. If barber shops were still driving consumer sentiment, I’d be writing this post about barber shop marketing. Be where your customers are.
6. Social media is hard
False. It’s not hard, it’s complicated. And that’s only because of the alphabet soup of social networks, lifestreams, sharing sites, etc. Social media is not about Facebook or MySpace or Flickr or Twitter or blogs or YouTube. It’s about having a strategy for making your company or organization more like a person and less like a machine. It’s about humanization.
If your customers and prospects feel like your company is more human and actually cares about them, they’ll want to be part of it. That’s the brand engagement holy grail that we’re all seeking. Too often, the humanization part gets overlooked in an effort to create a “user-generated video contest widget that we’ll launch on Facebook with support from Ustream.” Whatever. Use technology to be yourself, and don’t overthink it.
What other social media fallacies do you have? Leave a comment please.
More from Convince and Convert
- Are You Slow Enough to Succeed in Social Media
- Social Media is the Servant of Strategy Not the Master
- Why You’re the Key to Social Media Success
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How do you consistently say exactly what I am thinking?
Thanks for the post, yet again a brilliant post I must add. This blog is great as encouragement and validation for my own endeavors in social media marketing.
Over the last 7 months I’ve certainly walked the walk of social media marketing and this post is as plain and simple as a definition gets.
Thanks very much for the kind words. Those type of comments are why I do it. You are indeed the perfect case study. You’re in an industry (photography) and are a business type (small) where a lot of people would say “social media isn’t for me”. Nothing could be further from the truth, and you’re living proof. Bravo, man. Keep at it.
j
Excellent post and agree on all points, especially the ones about SM being optional, and SM being fast. Working on campaigns for several clients and its been a slow haul, especially for a new brand. But, fortunately there are some pretty sweet tools out there to help me find the right people to engage in conversation.
Jason- you hit it on the head. I am going to share this with my boss! Thank you!
Excellent advice on how to make progress and Charlene was spot on as well. Your still trading time for money in the mkt equation
Another nice post, J. From what we’ve seen it’s the combination of precisely these myths that we typically have to battle when guiding brands into social media. Because so much focus has historically been on creation and distribution of content online, companies often mistake social media outlets as simply another, more social repository for this content. Too often we see social media strategies that involve putting photos into Flickr, videos into YouTube or the creation of a Facebook application and then never revisiting the environment to engage with the communities around this content. IMO until these companies get their heads and strategies around social media as customer intimacy model rather than a content distribution channel they will continue to struggle with the medium.
Great list, Jason. I’d add:
1)Social media can increase sales.
2)Social media exposes your privacy
3)Social media resplaces advertising
Thanks Francine. I definitely agree with social media exposes your privacy and social media replaces advertising as fallacies.
I don’t concur that “social media can increase sales” is always false. I believe effective social media can indeed increase sales, especially when those efforts are directed toward current/previous customers. Ultimately, customer loyalty is a huge byproduct of social media, and that loyalty often can translate into sales. Not sales from new customers necessarily, but from those you already have that might have been at risk of defection.
In fact, I believe that ultimately SM will be viewed largely as a customer retention tool, with budgets from those departments and metrics that focus on customer lifetime value and how it’s impacted by social media touches.
Using social media to acquire customers is like using email to acquire customers. Unlikely at best. And, as I tried to communicate in the post, social media acquisition campaigns aren’t really social media at all, IMHO.
Sincere thanks for the comment.
j
Agreed on all fronts, and would add a tenth fallacy “You can embark on social media like a close-ended campaign.” Marketers are used to thinking in terms of measurable bursts, and it took some doing to get folks thinking about website investment as an ongoing and measurable presence. I imagine social media will go through the same process of moving from one executed campaign to a thoughtful, consistently measured line item investment.
Social media isn’t really marketing. Clearly false, but the fallacy for ‘older people’ is that all this social media stuff is what my kids are doing. When you show them the costs, they begin to understand it’s marketing, but then they wonder why pay you to do it when a 14-year old in their parent’s basement can do it? That’s when you need to put the proposal together like a brief.
And that’s when they realize that it is marketing. But a more patient kind that doesn’t fit the notion for many people that customers are but a click away if only we ask for the order…
Ah, the learning curve.
Excellent list, and possibly one we should hand out to clients in intial meetings. From a PR angency perspective (I work on the digital team for Porter Novelli), I’d add the myth that social media is a specialist skill. It’s not, it’s a natural extension of what we already do, with a couple of different rules.
Wow – fantastic points. These bullets should be on the walls of all executives who think they understand social media because they have the ‘tools’ to broadcast their message and that their consumers will automatically listen.
Kudos!
I agree with your last comment, Jason – social media isn’t for acquisition. I think it’s about meeting your customers where they’re congregating online and participating in conversations with them. People who aren’t already engaged in your brand aren’t interested in socializing with you online.
I’ve linked to a recent post of mine about Gartner’s recent report that half of social media campaigns will fail. Why? For the reasons you’ve listed here.
Just thought i would Stumble upon this ideal opportunity to link build! Absolutely loving the monkey from pulp fiction!
Good post. Thanks.
There are several points here that I like.
“Social media is not about Facebook or MySpace or Flickr or Twitter or blogs or YouTube.” Social media tools and applications are often seen as existing as their most visible persona (their application within a social network) rather than being seen as tools with wider application and use. For example, people talk about using twitter as a business tool rather than thinking about creating a searchable organizational database of collaborative conversations
“Social media results cannot be measured”
If you are not measuring your social media results then there is little point in having a social media strategy. Social media can enable conversations and participation but the real value comes from what we do with those conversations. This is particularly true if your social media strategy is integrated into your entire organization. Everything from supply chain management, product design, customer service, accounting and beyond can be informed through analysing the data collected through your social media strategy.
Very good distinctions between one-way media and social media. I am new to Twitter and Facebook, my two choices for developing my voice and platform as a business writer and consultant. What I have learned so far is what I don’t like: those who use social media to shill their products and services, and those who post trivia.
I agree with you about the primacy of relationship and conversation. I am meeting people and getting into fascinating discussions that are thought-provoking about business, economics, marketing and entrepreneurship. I take those thoughts back to writing and come up with more ideas, that I can share with others. My book (and my work) grows far richer for this dialogue. That is the value to me of Web 2.0 tools.
Moreover, much to my surprise, I was voted one of the Top 50 people to follow on Twitter in an “unofficial” poll. Two of my friends were too. We are all students in a writing program that emphasizes authenticity and voice, not marketing tactics.
Many people commented that the “Top 50″ had more content folks and fewer marketing/PR folks than they expected. This is all to the good. It just reminds us anew that CONTENT IS KING.
Jason,
This is great stuff – thanks so much for posting. These are exactly the kinds of rundowns that are so valuable when starting a social media effort with a client who is knew to all this “stuff”. There’s a lot of knee-jerk, half-truth information out there about social media and what it can do.
I’m always equating social media more in the business development side of things than marketing. It’s about long term strengthening of true relationships with – wait for it – PEOPLE. We’ll spend plenty of hours on the golf course with our clients and know that it’s doing something (though we can’t always say what), but the more intangible relationships that are separated by a computer screen we somehow tend to value less. I’m so glad you put this out there, and intend to keep spreading the good word.
Thanks.
Amber
Great post and I especially appreciate the viral example and the need for participating with authenticity.
I would add (maybe not a separate item, but incorporated?) that social media is not just for “kids.” I often see social media dismissed by executives because they assume only the 20-and-under crowd is online.
Great post Jason – here is my addition – and a quibble.
Addition: Social Media (relationships) can be outsourced. They can’t
Quibble: We (MotiveQuest) have social media metrics (brand advocacy via the Online Promoter Score) that have a strong, positive correlation to sales – see case study of work we did with MINI USA here:
http://tinyurl.com/58xm8d
TO’B
Hi Jason.
I would also add that Social Media Lets Others Control Your Brand. Many people fear participation in social media means losing control of your brand because you can’t control what’s being said. In reality, it can be a virtual feedback source to learn about your brand and how others are (not) participating with it. And it can be a strong listening tool to learn what one needs to do to strengthen his brand in areas it may be weak.
Deb and Matt -
Very interesting comments about social media not being for kid. Perhaps because I’m surrounded my marketers most times, I don’t get that feedback often. I suppose if I asked non-marketers or older folks I’d hear that perspective.
Especially if you take the position (as I do) that social media is more about customer retention than customer acquisition, it’s very much NOT for kids or demographically or psychographically slanted at all. It’s for everyone.
Great comments. Thank you for them.
j
Social media = Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is about the tools, social media is about the strategy. To be successful and avoid chasing your tail, you have to start with the strategy and figure out how to use the tools based on what you’re trying to do.
Kerry –
I absolutely love your comment about social media not being a specialized skill. I agree completely, and that philosophy is fundamental to the consulting I do for ad agencies and PR firms. Current staff members can easily learn how to do digital. Especially social media, but even SEO, PPC, email, etc. If you can write, communicate, and are at least decent with numbers, any of this is doable. Thanks so much for mentioning it.
j
Alasdair -
Great insights on using and measuring social media throughout the enterprise and the supply chain. You should blog on that. It’s fertile ground.
Thanks much for the comment.
j
Tom -
Really interesting presentation. Thank you for sharing it. Everyone believes that good social media outreach will increase sales. It stands to reason. Just like answering your phone or being nice to customers or any other humanizing factor. But it’s fantastic to see you putting math against it. Bravo.
j
[...] to DC this afternoon, but wanted to take a moment to re-post a blog entry from Jason Baer over at Convince & Convert. Great [...]
Jamie -
Thanks for the comment. Always great to have clients on the blog. Hi to all the folks at Bailey Gardiner! I totally agree with your point about losing control. You can’t control social media per se at a comment by comment level (and that is a huge theme of Joseph Jaffe, whom I’m interviewing tomorrow in my first Twitter 20 program). But just because you can’t finely craft every word doesn’t mean your whole brand is thrown to the wolves. It can be scary though, and helping companies understand it’s not end of days to comment on a blog is a big part of agencies getting their clients to adopt (and pay for) social media.
See you soon!
j
jason… preach it.
I basically get this mashed up question from companies wanting to do social media.
We need to get some VIRAL BUZZ going so our COMMUNITY INFLUENCERS can EVANGELIZE the PRODUCT SEEDING and create some SOCIAL MEDIA about it.
I disagree, a little bit, with #1 – social media is inexpensive. We can provide excellent support and training at a fraction of the cost an agency would charge. That makes it “inexpensive” – rather than spending millions, companies can spend thousands (or even, just hundreds) to achieve similar results…
The activity needed to maintain a successful social media presence is and should be part of any company’s marketing plan. So, that is not a cost that should only be associated with the social media project.
In the end, a small business can use a blog as their website, and manage it on their own…and they can discipline themselves to use other tools like Facebook and Twitter without ‘wasting time’…and have a much better ROI. Sometimes that ROI is in the people to people connection, and in building a strong network that sends you business in referrals.
So, it is inexpensive. If you know how to do it. The upfront cost of a good social media consultant outlives the project cost. I can tell you, we help our clients achieve results for a fraction of the cost of a PPC campaign, or a website redesign, or a direct mail piece. It’s all in how you manage your time, your network, and your strategy for success.
BTW, Jason, I am in awe of the way you answer everyone personally. I try to do the same….but sometimes discover I missed someone, somewhere. Making that personal connection can be tough…when you’re getting a lot of comments. But, again, it’s worth it, and it doesn’t cost as much as attending a conference on the West coast, paying for a magazine ad, or a TV ad, etc… so, when comparing options, I believe social media is inexpensive.
Excellent post. At my PR agency, we sometimes suffer from the perception that “you’re the web team so you will own all social media relationships”. This approach will never work. These relationships need to live with the people who are closest to the brand and the messages. Social media strategists should help to do just that – build strategy – but I believe execution, especially blogger relations, needs to become part of overall media relations.
Really great post and some super comments!
I might add; Social Media can be managed by a junior marketing person.
We’ve seen a few cases with clients of shuffling off the Social Media responsibilities to junior (ie.e young) PR and marketing types with little experience. On the upside it gives a junior a chance to shine. The downside is that this signals the C-suite and senior management don’t take Social Media seriously, and that can lead to some issues later on.
While it’s nice to get the work fixing these issues, it’s more productive for the client when we’re helping them grow.
To Francine on saying “social media can’t help sales grow” I’d argue that one. We have several clients who’ve measurably seen between 4% and 12% growth in sales attributable to Social Media. It’s all about the process and how you do it.
Hey Jason,
What a terrific post. Really clear. Here’s one I would add:
Social media is for big corporations and tech companies.
Maybe even add:
Social media is a fad.
We have seen the power of social media in the small ways our clients have allowed us to use it and they are neither big corporations or tech companies.
And I don’t believe social media is going to go away. The tools may change but the desire to connect will not.
Love the post and the conversation. Will be passing the link on to my bosses. I wish more people realized that what social media experts (and community managers, evangalists, etc.) do in the community space adds value but that value may not show in the first 3 weeks like they want it to!
Jason:
I bring this up because a lot of my clients are companies completely new to the field and implementing is sometimes hard because “upper management” doesn’t get it. I get put in the position of having to educate them of the need and value. I see social media as first a way to build and strengthen customer relations and secondly a PR/marketing vehicle. You have to have authenticity established with customers or you don’t get the latter. It’s part of the mix, not the end-all.
Yvonne -
Interesting point about the expense of social media compared to other digital or traditional marketing tactics. I agree that even with the significant labor involved in legit social media, it can be less expensive than media buy-driven tactics. But, I’m not sure that’s a good comparison. I don’t know that using social media instead of advertising is valid (even though I put forth that construct in the post). I believe social media is much more of a customer retention tool than a customer acquisition tool, and theoretically social media budgets should be coming out of customer service and operations, not marketing.
What do you think?
j
Tyler -
You are completely right. I do a lot of consulting with agencies, and too often the “tech” team gets the social media responsibility. Sometimes that’s appropriate, but ultimately social media is about messaging and relationships. Thus, public relations and even customer service folks are probably best able to make it work, with tactical and vehicle assistance from the Web folks.
Thanks much for the comment.
j
Great post.
I would add, “Social media is tactical.”
It’s not. It should be an important strategic focus. A brand is only a brand when there’s value larger than functional benefits. Otherwise it’s a product with a name.
A Social Media Strategy is an important and efficient way to achieve this objective. It is more likely to reach highly involved consumers, the non involved wouldn’t bother, so the positive impact delivered by the Social Media Strategy among this key cohort will create a larger value proposition for the brand.
Webconomist -
I agree that too often junior professionals get social media responsibility, mostly because they actually have a Facebook profile. And while they are usually pretty comfortable with the medium, they usually aren’t empowered to really wade in to the social media pond and help support brand initiatives.
The good news about having more junior employees working in social media is that they usually have a better feel for the casual, authentic tone that social media demands.
Thanks for the comment,
j
Indra -
Great comment. I don’t think social media is a fad (clearly). But I do believe the hype around social media is overblown and the faux-mystery surrounding it isn’t helping its adoption. It reminds me a lot of SEO from 5 years ago.
j
James -
Bingo! Social media is by definition strategic. The tactics are what’s making it so confusing and daunting to people.
Thanks as always for your support of the blog and my work. Your comments and pass alongs are very much appreciated.
j
I used to use that exact picture as my avatar everywhere.
[...] and liked the accompanying picture of the monkey so much, that I read on. This was the last of 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media, and it stuck: 6. Social media is [...]
How about Social Media can be done by an agency?
While agencies have a role in setting up a social media effort with their clients and measuring, my experience is that if you don’t have a hand in it yourself it very quickly becomes shallow and one-dimensional. That may also serve a purpose, but it doesn’t give you full value for the money (or time as you rightly say) you spend.
This may be the best post on social media I’ve seen. I have a small, independent, real estate brokerage. There are tremendous social media applications in real estate, but so many don’t “get it”. Granted, there is a lot to “get”. It’s not a Facebook group, it’s not a YouTube video and it’s not how many follow you on Twitter. It’s how you engage. As you said, it’s about humanizing the connection.
Brilliant Post Jason.
I have been at Roost.com now for four month and have had the task of taking the social media aspects of the company by the horns and running with it. It was rough the first month but I kept it going and now it is really working.
Our website and blog traffic are way up and I am not having to explain as much who we are.
I think another thing to be said is social media takes time (and I mean lots of it). There are so many social media outlets that need to be touched that it takes a lot of effort to hit them all on a consistent basis.
Jay -
I’m humbled by your assessment of my post. Especially in real estate where you’re buying the person not the company, I believe effective social media and conversation marketing could be a HUGE competitive advantage.
Thanks again for the comment.
j
Derek -
Thanks very much for the comment. I like the Roost.com site. Very interesting. I see you have email alerts on new properties in the area. Can you RSS feed that?
Good stuff. Keep it rocking.
Thanks again,
j
Excellent post, Jason. I was a little cynical when I read the title, but you’re spot-on here.
Working on the PR agency side, the ‘cheap’ point is a big one to remember – while the tools don’t cost anything, they do take a lot of time to monitor and analyse (in the same way that a comprehensive media monitoring program takes time).
I also like Francine’s ‘privacy’ and ‘advertising’ points. I’m a fan of the ‘social media as an addition’ approach – I like to see it as something that organizations should integrate (appropriately) with their other tactics instead of necessarily replacing them.
Thank you for this excellent post! I’ve just graduated with a degree in PR and never in our course work did we discuss social media even though it probably should have been studied, seeing how important it is becoming in communicating effectively.
As someone who is naive when it comes to social media this is a great source of information for me to understand further what social media really does. Thank you!
I look forward to more similar posts that are simple to understand. I have read many entries across blogs that speak to the audience as if we already know about social media, though many of us are grappling to understand what it really is.
[...] The Falacies of Social Media, what is true and what is not. [...]