October 22 2012 -
Is the benefit of social media for business the most over-hyped concept in a generation?
According to a report by the digital marketing group E-consultancy: “A quarter of UK small businesses (24%) use Facebook to market their organisations, but more than a third of them (37%) say it hasn’t helped their business in any way.”
At the risk of channelling Vic Reeves (“82.7% of statistics are made up on the spot”), the report shows that over 80% of small UK businesses are getting no perceptible financial benefit from the social media revolution. There’s ample evidence that the benefit of social media to small businesses is one of the most over-hyped and mis-sold concepts in a generation.
Nevertheless, the clamour for businesses to invest marketing time and money into this medium grows every day. And if that sounds like a massive contradiction, welcome to the difficult position senior finance and marketing managers find themselves in. Are we missing an opportunity or just wasting our time and money? Here’s the simple truth: unless you’re a global brand, social media is not a promotional tool and it’s not an advertising platform. It doesn’t work like that - so if your plan is based on using social media to do either of those things, be prepared to be disappointed.
So, aye, there's the rub. But why are so many wise heads spending so much time and effort developing Facebook and Twitter strategies? The best social media campaigns understand that at its essence, it is just friends sharing things of mutual interest with no commercial agenda whatsoever. The key is not to see it as a marketing tool, but as an unique and powerful communications device that gives you unrivalled insight into people’s passions and opinions - often stated when they’re at their most unguarded.
Try thinking of social media as a pub - lots of people with loose connections or similar interests, sharing stories and trivialities in a relaxed informal place. The last thing they want when they’re having fun with their friends is for some stranger to interrupt and start trying to flog things to them. Far too many companies act like the pub bore, braying loudly about themselves without listening to what anyone else is talking about. The popular ones are those that are clearly deep in happy conversation with their followers.
Companies who use it well spend a lot of time talking banalities; talking problems; even talking issues totally unrelated to their core business. They’ll post pictures of cats and will ‘engage’ with people in an informal manner, regardless of their station or position. At Novatech, even though our core markets are the serious IT Business and Education sectors, we spend our time on Facebook and Twitter being deliberately puerile with young gamers. This is partly because as a high performance tech company we have always been gaming experts, but mainly because the vast majority of these self-confessed geeks are the IT Directors of tomorrow.
We very specifically keep product promotions to an absolute minimum and usually let the audience dictate the conversation. Mostly they want to discuss internet fads and the performance of PCs but sometimes they want to talk about poor service or disappointments. This is uncomfortable territory.
Traditional wisdom has it that corporate PR is about ‘controlling the message’ - ensuring that only your voice and only your opinion is heard, but social media is the opposite. Giving your
customers control of how your brand is perceived is a scary position for marketing managers. Someone described it on Twitter as leaving the curtains open, ‘they’ll see you in your pyjamas – it’s raw and sometimes embarrassing, but REAL – and that’s very likeable.’ And you can’t buy that with an ad.
customers control of how your brand is perceived is a scary position for marketing managers. Someone described it on Twitter as leaving the curtains open, ‘they’ll see you in your pyjamas – it’s raw and sometimes embarrassing, but REAL – and that’s very likeable.’ And you can’t buy that with an ad.
The thing that marketing types love and finance types hate is that it is ephemeral, vague and impossible to quantify. The best results are often the ones you’ll never know about - an offline recommendation or a change in perception for the better. But you can catch some. Last month Novatech sold a large server to a young IT services company in Bristol. What was remarkable about that is that I can track that sale from his first conversation with us on Twitter, three years ago. He asked about a graphics card’s gaming capabilities. We were nice to him and responded in his preferred channel. We chatted a lot to him and encouraged him as he set up his own business. No salesman called until he asked for a chat with someone about server prices, but I’m pretty sure he will always be a loyal customer and a very powerful advocate for our services.
So your company’s social media should be your pub. The kind of pub that reflects you and your employees’ passions and interests for sure, but one that your customers will feel happy to relax in. And it doesn’t matter if they don’t buy your products in there. It doesn’t matter if they don’t even discuss you products. As long as they’re having a good time, they’ll reflect happily on their time with you and your brand, and the positive associations will be invaluable.
The influential blogger Jeff Bulas published a list of 15 Common Mistakes in Social Media Marketing, and whilst they are all good, the last mistake was perhaps the best: ‘Communication = Talking without Listening’. To paraphrase the post it said that, ‘sharing information without listening is social suicide. Start listening (and responding) and slowly and eventually you will get the exposure and ROI you desire.’ And his most valuable bit of advice - “Remember also, it helps to enjoy the ride.” Look like you love what you do and others may too.
Sources
No comments:
Post a Comment