By B.L. Ochman
Big companies have moved cautiously for eons. While many are corporations are making forays into social media, very, very few are taking huge risks. Instead of jumping in, they’re still standing on the edge of the pool, diipping a toe in the water. As a result, getting companies to add social media into the marketing mix is still a hard sell. Here are three of the top reasons why.
1- Consultants make social media sound scary.
Consultants, eager to prove the viability of social media in the marketing mix, are overwhelming stodgy companies by making social media sound more complex than it is.
A lot of consultants make what they do sound like a cross between vodoo magic and rocket science. The goal, I guess, is to make potential clients feel there is no way they could do whatever is being sold on their own. You will find more info at melodyeotvos.
But social media is not rocket science. And even if it was, making it easy to understand will win every time. The best professor I ever had in college taught physics. He could break rocket science down into simple terms. Do that for management and they’ll love you.
2- The magic word is “sales”
All most companies care about is whether they can make their numbers for the next quarter. Coolness may be the cherry on top, but it’s not the goal for most publicly held companies.
Social media becomes strategically viable when – blasphemous as this may sound to many SM gurus – the goal of its integration into the marketing mix is to go beyond cool and actually help to sell products and services.
3- Companies worry that cutting edge consultants won’t fit the corporate culture.
Changing the status quo can cause quite an upheaval in a company that has been dealing with silos for decades. Consultants need to prove to management that they will not make them look or feel inadequate because they can’t change quickly.
Consultants worry too much about making themselves look good and proving how smart they are.
The role of a smart consultant is to focus on making the client look smart for hiring you.
Three Top Reasons Why Social Media is Still a Tough Sell
BL Ochman | November 9, 2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (17) | TrackBack (
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Categories: Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Business Communications, Don't Believe the Hype, Marketing Strategy, Reality Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Thought Leaders
Tags: , BL Ochman, corporate social media strategy, selling social media, social media marketing
Tags: , BL Ochman, corporate social media strategy, selling social media, social media marketing
@Ochman, Companies like to invest in social media marketing, if it helps them to drive the business goals. No one is interested in investing money to increase conversations
Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).
Hey BL it has been a few years… came across a mention of you in Twitter. As usual you hit the nail on the head. Common sense goes a long way and Social Media is mostly about hard work and knowing the audience so you can provide the right content to fill the needs of the user to make a sale. Part of the problem stems from SM peeps not fully understanding where users are on the conversion funnel. Bridging the content gap between Facebook and a store or website is the biggest hurdle. That’s why Social has been more successful as a customer service tool the sites or application is more suited to communication.
Hey Terry! Long time indeed. I think a lot of newly minted social media mavens promise more than social media can deliver. As you said, the key is understanding the audience. And in the case of consultants, that means understanding the hurdles the CMO faces internally when trying to add anything new to the mix and knowing what the people formerly known as the audience want to know.
Nallai – that was exactly the point of the post. good summary.
if you want to follow me on Twitter, it’s @whatsnext.
It is the business component that many consultants, and most applications, leave out of the mix. If you can show the company how conversations can turn into cash, you’re in the door. As with any customer contact medium, it is a matter focusing attentions into an arena where you can communicate effectively. Private social networks are a great tool to direct the cluttered conversations into a branded interchange that can move easily to a transaction, provided your private social network is built for e-commerce.
Social Media is the soul of the company’s face to people. What the people would see and observe and think about the organization depends a lot on this. Sometimes I do wonder whether organizations need to hire technical consultants when they themselves can do the job by hiring a dedicated employee with a decent department for this!
Introduce and educate employees to this and make them aware of this fact.What could be more achieved with the fact that the employees work for the face of the organization :)
One of the biggest stigmas of social media meeting large and small business is the fear of the unknown. Education and simplicity always works in gaining new clientele. I always start with the what it is, how it works and then why you need it (including how it can reap financial roi). Here’s a good article defining relationships within social networks that can help consultants. http://www.onlinemarketingconnect.com/thebuzzbin/2009/11/are-you-my-mother-and-social-networks/
I’ve got to say, I think social media is better when the whole company is on board with it and understand that they need to listen to their customers and make adjustments as and when necessary.
Great post. The mention of “yeah I consult on social media these days” can be seen by way to many organisations as either the magic message solution …*errrrrrrr WRONG* – or totally feared and despised ranking ever-so-slightly above the Black Death. I then fall back to my position as I am NOT a social media expert rather an integrated marketing/ communications dude [depending on who I’m pitching to] – i.e its simply part of the marketing mix to be used and evaluated well.
Why is it that we marketers have always this urge to complicate the heck out of things? Is it because not even us can explain it in simple words? Thanks BL.
“Social media becomes strategically viable when – blasphemous as this may sound to many SM gurus – the goal of its integration into the marketing mix is to go beyond cool and actually help to sell products and services.”
Amen brother! Someone willing to say social media needs to earn it’s keep!
-Darren
Thanks Darren – but that would be “amen sister”. I’m the one on the left in the photo on my blog :>)
I work with a lot of small businesses, primarily local SMBs who are all trying to figure out their role in social. Point #1 is valid, but more so for the unknown since they don’t talk to many consultants. Most are tip toeing through it, especially due to point #2. Facebook has reported 1.5 million business pages, but the freqeuncy of updating them (the most important aspect) is likely very low. Owners worry about the ROI due to the amount of time it takes to get started and measure results, just as they did with online marketing just a few short years ago.
I think another big obstacle is the silly demand for ROI in social media. They don’t worry about ROI on new carpet, golden parachutes, office furniture, business cards, etc. but they think social media is not viable unless it results in fast contributions to the “bottom line” profits.
But social media participation is mostly beneficial for generating good will, which money and advertising cannot buy.
If benevolent companies would see social media as a competitive advantage in terms of providing customer service, handling complaints, explaining corporate viewpoints, helping customers understand and solve their real world problems, teaching about the industry in general, and other altruistic, “non-productive” things…they’d be more successful.
Business is NOT about profits. It’s about understanding customer problems, solving those problems, and establishing long-term relationships with these customers, who then act as unpaid evangelists of their products, thus increasing sales and good will.
I wouldn’t call the demand for ROI silly. And really, there’s much that CAN be measured – from brand mentions to sales conversions.
Gotta disagree that business isn’t about profits, because without profits, business can’t survive. What’s missing from most corporate formulas is compassion, listening, openness and willingness to change. That’s a pretty big bunch of issues!
That said, i would agree that companies have unrealistic expectations of social media. It’s pushed as a panacea by legions of self-appointed social media “gurus” and that’s not what it is, as you know.
The Center for Media Research has released a study by Vertical Response that shows just where many of these ‘Main Street’ players are going with their online dollars. The big winners: e-mail and social media. With only 3.8% of small business folks NOT planning on using e-mail marketing and with social media carrying the perception of being free (which they so rudely discover it is far from free) this should make some in the banner and search crowd a little wary.
http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com