SUMMARY: Social media has moved from an engagement model to an advertising model, but too many marketers still believe that their customers want a relationship with their brand.
Look in your pantry for a second. How many of those brands do you want to have a social media relationship with? cog markers continue to believe that consumers still want to have a relationship with their brands. This is mistaken thinking.
First, let me take a step back. There are some products, brand, that consumers DO want to have a relationship with such as bicycle and car brands but a relationship with a frozen pizza company? Please!
The relationship that 98% of CPG brands have with consumers is simply executing on the basic promise; “give me what I thought I purchased”.
The fact is that consumers are overwhelmed with the messages they receive and want/need some downtime. Brands need to use social media to listen to what consumers are saying, but please stop the nonsense that they want to have a relationship with your brand and the ridiculous notion that relationship is going to lead to sales.
Facebook today is nothing more than an advertising platform. Organic posts are essentially worthless. Twitter is the same way and Instagram usually promotes products made outside the US.
Tying social media metrics to strategy has become an accepted best practice over the past few years. Strategy is abstract by definition, but metrics give strategy form, allowing our minds to grasp it more readily. But how do you explain the millions of followers on social media when your sales are declining? A company can easily lose sight of its strategy and instead focus strictly on the social media metrics that are meant to represent it.
Ask yourself a question when determining if social media is a good channel for your marketing. “Do consumers really want to have a relationship with our brand and what is the value they take away?”. If you can’t answer that simply and honestly you’re wasting money.
