How bad has social media marketing become? Facebook is now becoming an ad platform and will place ads on non-facebook sites. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have all shown declines in usage. In almost all countries, time spent on the four leading social media apps, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter have fallen. So where are the social media experts now?
Consumers don’t want brand in their online lives. Ad Blockers have hit record numbers and organic reach of facebook is a fairy tale. Yet, social media sites would still have you believe that you absolutely need to be on social media. What a load of bull.
Then there is the hype around native advertising, billed as the savior of online advertising. This despite the research that says consumers don’t like native advertising. More and more of the free research reports that I read online are from agencies that benefit from the findings. It’s as bad as the huge con job that Hubspot calls “inbound marketing”.
So what should marketers do?
1ne: Focus on mapping the moments of truth. That moment when a prospect becomes a customer. How can you improve that key metric?
2wo: Placement, in store, can be more important than any and all advertising.
3hree: POP is very important in most consumer brands but it has to contain messages that influence consumers.
4our: No, you don’t need to be on facebook, but you should be on social media to give your customers a voice when they want to contact you.
5ive: The most important tactic in online marketing is your website. Consumers choose to come to your website so it should be designed to turn them into customers.
6ix: Don’t fall into the trap of content marketing. Consumers don’t have time to consume all the content online unless it’s personally relevant to THEM.
7even: KISS- keep it simple stupid. Stop believing that you have to be everywhere online.
8ight: Want to improve your marketing? Get out of the office an watch consumers shop and conduct research.
Now a lot of this seems to be marketing 101 but the Internet is full of agencies who have a hidden agenda to get you to spend more online. The guys who wrote books are legends in their own minds and are worshipped by brain dead marketers who would walk a mile to hear them talk. People like Jay are making a living off of brain dead marketers who are desperate to do anything to increase sales. That’s too bad, but then there is a sucker born every minute.
