Looks like Dilbert’s going to mine the Social Media vein for a while; rather than post all the strips here, I’ll simply suggest you visit the Dilbert site to follow what’s surely coming.
If it’s one thing social media marketers need – and sometimes sorely lack – it’s a sense of perspective (and perhaps a sense of humor).
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
Yahoo just purchased Associated Content – one of the leading article farms – for a cool $100 million.
For just a moment, I wondered how much of that payout is headed for the folks who actually populated the AC’s site with content.
And then I smiled.
Silly me. The answer, of course, is zilch.
As Nicholas Carr of Rough Type has pointed out, content creators have become the sharecroppers of the digital age, and those who create for the “greater good of the community” are likely to discover their community’s about to be sold for the “greater good of the owner.”
Obviously, benefits can accrue to those working in organized online communities.
Yet those benefits need to be balanced against the unhappy negatives.
Handing over control of content – which means investing time, money, and energy into someone else’s proprietary “community” – is only smart if you already have a plan to turn the largely intangible benefits of social media into tangible ones.
For example, do you “own” your 5,000 Facebook fans?
If Facebook killed your presence today, how many of those fans could you contact?
And if Facebook crumbled in the face of a sexier, less-predatory replacement, would you simply move on – leaving your massive time investment to crumble with it?
Could you reclaim your data (and your hard work)?
Open, My Ass
In what some are calling a new era of openness, it’s ironic that we’re seeing the resurrection of closed, proprietary platforms.
They’re very good at converting the work of the “community” into sky-high paydays for their owners.
Yet to do that, they aggregate the work product of many – often delivering only low-quality relationships in return.
Which is why I recommend implementing email programs before starting social media programs. (And integrating e-newsletters with blogs, and WordPress over Blogger, and open over closed…)
Are you converting social media “currency” into real dollars for your business?
Or are you simply chasing useless stats – feeding your ego, but not your bank account?
Are you turning followers into horrifyingly old-school email addresses? Fans into conversions?
Or are you simply sharecropping?
Social media’s the hot marketing topic right now (and this despite the reality that search and email remain the ROI leaders, and by a sizable margin).
Still, there’s no underestimating the amount of time most slackers freelancers waste on Facebook and Twitter, so if your New Years resolutions include “I will focus on my business and waste less time on Facebook and Twitter,” then we’ve got just the site for you:
It’s the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine – a brilliant site which will wipe out your Web 2.0 existence while you wait.
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace… all gone in minutes. Then you can join the ranks of luddite curmudgeons worldwide. Frankly, we don’t see a downside.
(Still, if the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine truly is anti-Web 2.0, why aren’t they bucking the “everything is free” trend and charging for it?)
Once again, the Underground scours the Internet for the kind of productivity-enhancing tips you simply won’t find anywhere else.
Keep writing (and not on Facebook), Tom Chandler.
This observational gem from a thoughtful presentation on social media metrics on the zygote blog
I recently read (and misplaced) an article deriding many social media “consultants” as carpetbaggers, and after reading a presentation to a trade association by a social media “guru” I’d say that’s true for at least one of them.
Naturally, this isn’t a blanket condemnation of social media consultants. After all, I’m a True Believer (note the caps) in engagement marketing, which qualifies me as someone willing to believe in the long-term power of connection with your audience.
So instead of condemnation, consider this a call for sanity.
In the marketing world, social media channels should meet the same performance standards as other, less-glamorous marketing channels. But the buzz is hard to escape – as is the sense that more than a few consultants aren’t doing their clients any favors.
Online Marketing Tough Love
I’m in the midst of teaching an Online Marketing Boot Camp – a class I developed for a local economic development agency. Even at the outset, social media reared up on its hind legs, demanding attention.
My students want to know if they should dive in. I’ve got two more weeks to figure it out.
Over the last month, I’ve read a lot of “Ten Reasons Why Every Primate Should Have a Twitter/Facebook/MySpace Presence” posts.
What’s striking is how few of those Top 10 “reasons” offer any hope of revenue. After all, I’m teaching small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs – people with limited time, and long, long to-do lists.
It’s easy to rave about the blue-sky benefits of Twitter and Facebook. But harder to define the dollars-and-cents return – especially when most of my students didn’t enter the business world to become “content generators.”
Most have trouble sticking to a regular e-newsletter mailing schedule. And email/e-newsletters remain the ROI Kings of online marketing.
Yet the social media buzz is powerful – as are the temptations.
Social Attraction
I consult with a small business client who’s done a great job putting their online marketing world in order.
Their Web site is solid (it’s running atop WordPress). They’re growing their monthly e-newsletter list (within a week of each mailing, the e-newsletter generates about half their revenue)
We launched their blog into a regular, google-pleasing, traffic-pulling orbit (no, we didn’t call it a blog – we wanted the publishing platform but not the baggage).
They’re a regional business, and yes, 95% of their new business comes via the Internet.
And yes, they’re asking me about social media.
My answer? Maybe.
Asking The Right Questions
First, let’s revisit the idea that new technology doesn’t drive marketing programs – business goals drive marketing programs. Investing time in a new media channel because it’s generating “buzz” doesn’t quite meet the bar.
In other words, the questions aren’t “Should we Twitter?” or “How about Facebook?”
It’s “Where are your customers? How do they want to be contacted? Can you deliver high-value content? How many media channels can you reasonably feed?” Then comes the biggie: “Do the contacts generated by social media convert into sales – or just traffic?”
In the case of several of my boot camp students, the answers to those questions suggest getting their online house in order before they launch social media initiatives. Sites should be dynamic and sticky. And – for most clients – an email program is a necessity.
Lest you think I’m a total unbeliever, I’ll say this: One of the boot camp students is an absolutely perfect fit for the hippest, hottest social media we can dredge up (fashion), and we’re going to go for it – though I’m suggesting an email program to turn short-term social medioids into long-term (profitable) customers.
For that small business client? I’m thinking it’s time to explore Facebook – but the second he misses an e-newsletter deadline, we’re taking the keys to Facebook away.
Keep marketing, Tom Chandler
Marketers are always on the lookout for new ways to leverage new media, and brand new platforms like Twitter offer fertile ground for creativity.
Two days ago, I was informed that “PattyHewes” was following me on Twitter. I took a quick look, but didn’t recognize the photo of Glen Close.
I did, however, notice the hardass tweets, which included:
@gjkooijman That’s what Tom Shayes discovered. He thought he was ready to run the show after years of being in my shadow. How wrong he was.
Everyone thinks they want to be at the top. But most are just fooling themselves. Few have the stomach for it. Or the balls.
OK, that’s not someone I need to follow.
I forgot about it until the next day, when I was followed by another character who tweeted “If @PattyHewes is following you, you *should* be scared. You should be terrified.”
That got my attention.
A quick visit, then I put the pieces together – both were characters in a TV series called “Damages” and I’d been Twitterbaited (I thought I’d made that up myself until I googled it).
It’s a creative tactic, though a little unsettling to see TV characters crossing the digital divide into the “real” world (the “reality” of Twitter could probably be debated).
The characters are adding new tweets (about one per day), and the list of followed and followers continues to grow.
Will some consider this the Twitter equivalent of spam; a breach of etiquette that will outweigh the advertising aspect?
Keep writing, Tom Chandler
What? A Data-Driven Approach to Social Media Marketing?? (We Likey…)
Taddy Hall’s excellent Ad Age article about social media offers us analytic types something unique:
Actual data-driven recommendations for brands using social media marketing.
I wouldn’t be the first marketer to suggest many of the social media “gurus” now flooding the Internet are working from an astonishingly small experiential base. It’s the result of a tidal wave of social media hype, much of it coming from people scrambling to establish their credibility in an emerging market – disguising the fact their bona fides are paper thin.
Here’s a thought: Social media really isn’t very different from other media channels.
The same strategies – altered slightly to fit new distribution methods – still apply (“what’s in this for me” asks the reader).
Keep writing (and marketing), Tom Chandler.