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What Social Media Marketing is Not. Hint: It's Not Voodoo

As Hugh Macleod, joked in a recent Twitter post, “Pretty soon we'll have "Social" prefixing everything: Social Marketing, Social Communicating, Social Cornflakes”.

No doubt about it, buzzwords – from viral to meme to mashup to social media itself – abound. Yet, despite all the talk, the mainstream media coverage, the conferences, courses and books on social media marketing, there’s quite a bit of ambivalence, fear and sometimes outright hostility directed toward social media by CMOs, CEOs and CFOs.

Therefore, corporate types increasingly say “We just want to stick our toe in the water, and see what this stuff is all about,” and “we want to do a small, low-budget social media project” and track the ROI. Danger, Will Robinson!! Danger, Will Robinson!!!

Social media isn’t a one-shot deal Social media isn’t a technique, a short-term project, an experiment, an event, or a quick fix. It’s not something you throw money at, and using it doesn’t guarantee sales or influence.

Social media is a set of tools that can help you make your company or your products or your services what people recommend to other people who trust their judgment. Those tools provide absolutely anyone - including corporations - the opportunity to establish credibility and gain trust.

Let’s take a look at the tools people use to share information with friends and family:
• Photo and video sharing
• Email and IM
• Podcasting, video casting, video conferencing
• Self-published and self-promoted ebooks
• text messages
• shared bookmarking and annotated link sharing
• social shopping
• blogs and microblogs
• business, personal, interest and hobby groups

People use these tools to pass on information that is:
• interesting
• amusing
• poignant
• relevant
• useful
• educational
• arresting

Communication isn’t a fad People young and old use these tools and pass along information in a casual way because this way of spreading information is now part of the culture.

Yet corporations are still expecting a static website with no feedback mechanism, banner advertising, multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads, top-down messages, and over-saturated search engine advertising to pass for communication. Then they wonder why their marketing doesn’t drive sales.

A company that has open channels of communications that include social media tools has the opportunity to interact with online influentials. But they need to speak in a human voice, to answer and ask questions, to provide information. Because in a crisis, only a company with open lines of communication can be heard. Companies that participate in social media will have the opportunity to be heard and perhaps believed.

Beware the kid with a webcam? Nothing’s really changed about the way information spreads except the tools, and the speed of transmission. But while corporations, agencies and self-proclaimed social media marketers are debating the relative merits of listening to their customers, the customers already are on blogs, in consumer opinion sites, in social networks, on IM, and meeting face to face to share their opinions about these same products and services.

The value of a network? One of the big concerns of CMOs, CEOs and CFOs (besides that they’re about to lose their jobs) is that people will say something bad about the company in social media. And that’s true, they will, if there is something bad to be said. Of course, these same networks can help a CMO or CEO find a job too.

The more people a company can reach who already have strong social networks, the more likely the company can spread a message through those networks – IF the company was already a trusted member of the community.

As Chris Brogan recently pointed out on Twitter,

“The value of a network? Being able to reach out and ask questions. The price? Being there to help when you can.”

Networks also provide early warnings of problems, and give members a chance to respond and discuss solutions.

Social media provides the long-term opportunity for companies to develop and use online networks to provide information their customers find interesting, or amusing, or helpful. That becomes an opportunity to listen and to change, and to become the topic of dinner table and water cooler conversation.

See? That’s not so scary! Posted by B.L. Ochman

Categories: Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Business Communications, Internet strategy, Marketing Strategy, Peer-to-peer, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing, Word of Mouth

BL Ochman | Feb 8 08 12:41 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

wow, that was an entertaining post indeed. I think social media marketing is not so powerful as email marketing can achieve. today, twenty million people are using the email as their medium of commn.

Posted by: Jim at February 8, 2008 5:41 PM

I guess that would make most companies Anti-Social.

Posted by: Geoff Livingston at February 8, 2008 11:40 PM

Great article. There really are so many incredible social media tools out there right now. Video conferencing for one has certainly made the world a smaller place. I've been using ooVoo since it is free. There are a lot of social media tools out there that companies can use to cut down on costs and increase productivity.

Posted by: Pat at February 10, 2008 3:45 PM

Great post. Another thing worth noting is that company execs should absolutely jump into the social networking pool in order to fully understand how it works and the implications for their future. Sure, it can feel a little silly being the only adult at the kids' table, but I've learned more about social networking by joining Facebook than I ever could have learned standing on the sidelines. Part of the reason I think some people don't get it is that they've never experienced "it" firsthand.

Posted by: Anthony Juliano at February 10, 2008 4:28 PM

One of the great things about social media is that it is anti-spam. It is about getting relevant content to interested people. marketers can certainly achieve great results with e-mail marketing, but what my fellow commenter Jim fails to point out is that just because so many people use e-mail doesn't mean the average company can effectively use the medium in a meaningful way. you can send all the e-mails you want, but how many will be considered spam, how many will actually be opened and how many will actually produce results? social media IMHO is not about how many people you can engage, but how engaged can you make people.

Posted by: isaac at February 11, 2008 2:58 PM

Interesting post BL. Particularly the part "But while corporations, agencies and self-proclaimed social media marketers are debating the relative merits of listening to their customers, the customers already are on blogs, in consumer opinion sites, in social networks, on IM, and meeting face to face to share their opinions about these same products and services." That's why we at ASOMO (www.asomo.net) propose understanding what people are saying, where they talk and the impact that has. To quote Nathan Gilliat (http://www.socialtarget.com/) "You have to perceive before you can protect,participate and project."

Posted by: Jonathan Moody at February 13, 2008 3:07 AM

amen sister...also and agree with jonathan moody too, that seeing what people are saying, monitoring the conversation and gaining insight in to that exisiting conversation is the first step. i use Collective Intellect to track conversations and find it very hepful to extract tonal sentiment and activity around a certain topic.

the other part of this-- the resistence by CMO's and others comes in large part from uncertainty, and relinquishing control somewhat to the greater voice at large (the consumers, not the companies). and despite that some people are still in denial about whats happening (ahem, Drama 2.0)-- the game has definitely changed.

Posted by: alisa at February 13, 2008 2:30 PM

Late to your party BL but .. social media changes the dynamics of not only marketing but business. We talk of customers becoming involved with the brand; social media opens the door for "people" in the company to become involved with their customers. That is powerful. Great post.

Posted by: Toby at February 16, 2008 2:05 AM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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What Social Media Marketing is Not. Hint: It's Not Voodoo

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