Facebook is a website, not a social-media marketing strategy!

I love it when a client gets really excited about something. (Especially when it is about one of my ideas.) A close second to that is when they get excited about taking a risk and trying something new with a campaign. 

Take the social web for example. There are some clients and businesses that will take that great leap of faith and embrace social media. When done right, they truly benefit from it.

A great example of this is IBM who asked their employees to blog about their passions for technology, the IT industry, their personal interests, and the company’s products. IBM then built a website around this which they call “A menu of expertise and insight from a passionate crowd“

 

As a result, IBM gained some real credibility by demonstrating that they are transparent and open. They allow their staff to have their own opinions rather than expecting they will tow the company line. I think it also shows that IBM listen to customers (and staff) and embrace new ideas. A great marketing initiative hands-down!

At the other end of the spectrum are those businesses who have drafted and published strict (anti-)social-media policies. This usually comes about from an internal legal boffin worried about communication from the company becoming publicly available, without passing his or her desk for approval. Whether they do this for the good of the company, or for justifying their own self importance, I will leave it for you to decide.

These (anti-social-media) businesses attract marketing people who work well within these confines. To their credit, they sometimes also produce great campaigns, albeit using traditional media. However, they are usually not receptive to brilliant new ideas, or experimenting with new technologies and tools to help them achieve their marketing objectives. After all, corporate policy dictates that blogs are banned,  Facebook is blocked at the firewall, and Twitter is something that geeks do to pretend they are cool.

They prefer to take the “safe” road. Any other option for them is unknown and therefore a very scary prospect.  

What is even more scary than the unknown, is when an organisation puts a marketing manger in chargewho thinks they know everything – but they don’t. “Make sure you include Facebook in this campaign” is often their most loved phrase. They are not exactly sure what purpose Facebook will serve to meet the campaign objectives. They just think that they must be there. If you peered into the mind of these marketers you would see the following thoughts: 

“I will not be a good marketer if I forget Facebook”

“It won’t not a true integrated campaign without Facebook”

“No awards at Cannes if we don’t use Facebook in this campaign!”

This is the worst client to have. They just don’t get it.

Firstly, Facebook is a website, not a social-media marketing strategy. Just because Facebook gets a lot of press, and has a large user base, that doesn’t mean it is the right option for your brand.

Facebook is just one website. Online social media is diverse and spans a number of different tools, each with their own purpose, and more importantly, their own niche audience. Some of these audiences are relevant to your business, others are not. Facebook may not be right for this campaign. A blog may do a better job and getting customers onside, or perhaps a photo-sharing application, pod-cast, mash-up, the point is: Facebook is not the be all and end all of online social-media!

Secondly, pushing your brand into the land of the social web means that you are also opening up a conversation with the online community. This is different to other traditional marketing tactics where the “conversation” flows in only one direction. i.e  ”I am a brand – hear me roar!”.  With the social web, customers want to be a part of the conversation, rather than being shouted at. They may love your product, or want to criticise your product. In the online social world it doesn’t matter if the feedback is good or bad. What is important is that people have the opportunity to say how they feel. What is also vital is that the company is listening and responding directly to this feedback, and actively participating in the conversation.

If your organisation is not ready to respond to customers in this way, then your entry into Facebook (or any other online social medium) is doomed for failure. 

Finally, the marketer must ask the question -

How does using Facebook in this campaign add value to the customer or audience?

With online social media, more than any other form of marketing, this is the most important question. Your marketing message must be relevant to the audience. The audience must find your message interesting enough to grab their attention, useful to them, or at the very least – entertaining in some way. If your brand is going to enter their online social world, and be accepted there, then you must provide a benefit. If not, then you risk a backlash from the online community that could be much more damaging to your brand. 

So if you have read this far then you are probably wondering where I am going with all this?

Well as I said at the start, “I love when a client gets excited about taking a risk and trying something new with a campaign”. If you are a marketing manager thinking about experimenting with social media, then “hurrah! ” for you. You are the dream client. Please keep embracing new ideas, challenge your agencies, experiment with new tools, and remain realistic about your campaigns.

If you just want to put your next campaign on “Facebook” but not really sure why, then don’t waste your time and hire a decent person that understands social media to help you develop a proper social-media strategy that has a better chance of being a success.

If you don’t beleive online social media can benefit your organisation or brand then fair-enough….you’ll come ’round eventually.

Should corporates embrace social media?

Carl Galalgher wrote:

I saw a recent post on the GasPedal blog that quoted some interesting stats in relation to social media and why corporates should embrace it.

The findings were from a  study  that concluded 60% of Americans use social media, and of those, nearly 60% engage with companies on social sites—one in four of which interact with companies more than once per week.

The study goes on to reveal that a whopping 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe that a company should not only be present but also interact with consumers.

Other findings:

• 56% of social media users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment
• 43% of users believe companies should use social networks to help solve their problems
• 41% believe companies should solicit feedback on their products and services through social media
• Men are twice as likely to frequently interact with companies online than women

So what should we make of all this? Well this is all good news. Yes corporates should embrace the world of social media. However they should not just see this as another marketing channel. Social media by its very definition is very different to every other form of marketing. It is personal communication. It’s a ‘conversaion’. It is also very easy for businesses to get social media wrong.

Churning out the same message that is contained in your banner ad, DM comms, or TVC and Tweeting it or sticking it in a facebook ad is not going to do you any favours in the social media world. This has the potential to easily be seen as an intrusion on one’s personal life.

This is equivalent to the endless stream of “junk mail” that I get every month from Company-X (I won’t mention any names to protect the innocent) trying to sell me a service that I clearly don’t want. Disguising the same message in a different fancy envelope is not going to change my opinion on Company-X or their product.  It just adds to my frustration that Company-X doesn’t care about why I don’t want their product. How arrogant! Their tactic is to keep ramming it down my throat until I eventually give in (which I never will whilst they keep marketing to me in this way).

Organisations such as Company-X need to get smarter with their messaging and communication. With social media they have the power to send me more targeted, relevant, and timely offers. They can educate me on how my friends (real people I actually know) are using their product, rather than assuming that I can relate to the people in their TV ads.  The can engage in discussion with me and find out why I have such an aversion to their product. They can embrace the debate and try to convince me otherwise. They can listen to what I have to say, and can respond back to me directly.

By doing these things, Company-X would be showing me that they care about making their product relevant to me. That is something that I may actually pay for if it ever happened. 

I will be the first to admit that it is not an easy job, and has the potential to be resource intensive to communicate to customers in this new way. But take a look at the number of people involved in producing all the “generic” marketing material for Company-X that I am ignoring (along with many other people too no doubt). If just some of these people were diverted to social media communication (and understood the medium well enough to use it effectively) then think about all those extra people that Company-X could potentially convert. Would that not equate to a better spend of money?

There will always be the diehards who won’t accept corporates entering their social media existence. You are never going to convince them. But there is a mainstream social media community out there  (as evidenced by the stats at the top of this post) that is open to the right form of communication from companies. 

I hope Company-X is listening.  :)