Marketers have always been trained to “follow the numbers” but in some case that logic doesn’t apply to marketing today. If you’re trying to create awareness for a new product or brand of course you need to create awareness, but if you’re an established brand awareness very rarely translates into conversion. Anyone who says “you need to..” be on any social media platform because of the number of users doesn’t understand what consumers and their recommendations to do so should be seen as pure pontificating.
The latest propaganda to hit the social media marketing machine is that you need to be on Pinterest because there are 11 million users. This despite the fact that Amazon’s Zappo’s lab clearly indicated that they were getting more business in dollars from Twitter than Pinterest. That brings me to truth number one:
1ne: [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”null”]People may engage you and even share your content, but that doesn’t mean they are going to become your customers[/inlinetweet].
What? You mean that engagement doesn’t always lead to conversion? Blasphemy ! Women, for example, love to share recipes on interest, but instead of using your brand of breadcrumbs they may decide to use the store brand which is happening again and again. You can write some killer content and people may use it, but again, they may read your content on why they need vitamins and decide to purchase another brand that has a lower price point.
In addition to the belief that engagement somehow leads to loyal customers, marketers are spending way too much time trying to justify their investment in social media. So that brings me to truth number two:
2wo: [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]Not everything you do can and should be measured.[/inlinetweet]
Do you measure each and every print ad or POP display? Who has the time for that ? So why are you spending so much time trying to measure social media as its own tactic ? You should look at social media as part of your marketing engine and tune it as necessary but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that social media is going to provide magic marketing results.
Even if your video goes viral and you get 3 million people who view it there is no guarantee that those numbers are going to lead to new customers. Remember Old Spice’s viral videos? Where are they now ? Men are now switching to Axe because they are using a branding campaign where sex sells.
3hree: The key to effective social media marketing is two fold; first start with a strategy that truly understands how people use social media and whether they have time to let your brand into your life and second, understand that social media works best as part of an integrated marketing strategy.
As I have said here many times before, [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]to consumers, time is currency[/inlinetweet] and they don’t have time to let everyday brands into their life nor do they really want to have a social media relationship with their diet soda. Focus on what’s important to consumers and deliver the product to them as they expect it and you’ll do much better than throwing a lot of money at your agency to liven your social media Facebook page.
