As a social media consultant I do my fair bit to promote social media as an effective marketing tool, but persuading small and medium sized business owners to start taking the likes of Twitter and Facebook Page seriously can be an uphill struggle.
I regularly meet 2 distinct types of social media sceptic
- Those who have no experience, knowledge of or interest in social media and are attached to their traditional marketing activities
- Those who have attended a social media workshop/seminar or even sought one-to-one advice from a social media consultant
Type 1 sceptics
A hard nut to crack. I don’t concern myself with them too much because I know that as time goes by the first thing listed here will definitely happen to all of them, and to many of them the second will probably happen first
- Their generation will die off
- Social media’s importance will become harder and harder to ignore and they will finally convert
Type 2 sceptics
A very sad case. Having taken the initiative to look into social media themselves they should be amongst its greatest cheerleaders, but they’re not. Why not? Because they are the once-bitten-twice-shy victims of social media nonsense.
Creating type 2 sceptics is bad business practice. As a former sales manager I recognise success is repeat business, not one-off business. Unfortunately one-off business is the bread and butter of so many so-called social media experts or ‘thought leaders’ (Thought leaders? Please! If there is any place in the language for as inelegant a noun as this then it should be preserved for the likes of Jean Paul Sartre and Karl Popper. No one in mere marketing or sales deserves such an elevated title. NO ONE!)
In the hope of saving business people from becoming ‘Type 2 Sceptics’ here’s a guide to the commonest social media BS you should be aware of and the antidote for each.
BS1. Seminars costing £300+ a day, the program of which includes things like overviews into different social media platforms and presentations by guest ‘social media glitterati’ speakers
You can get plenty of intros to social media free online. Seminars of these sort that include presentations from social media glitterati amount to little more than a load of generalisations, a few branded pens, free mineral water and a buffet lunch
Antidote:
Generalities are no good to anyone wanting to devise and implement a practical social media strategy. Workshops and training like my own (detailed here) promise every participant the opportunity to develop concrete ideas on their social media mix (explained here) and also the kind of content they will be tweeting, blogging and Facebook-ing (plenty of examples here)
I also offer free advice by phone or e-mail to all my workshop attendees for 30 days post workshop so that there is a real chance they actually get things done. I even offer a free ‘polite badgering’ service to those worried that their new resolve to tweet and blog will go the same way as their post-Christmas diet or that 3 times a week jogging plan!
BS2. Promotion of social media by citing the success of large corporations
At several seminars on social media that I have attended guest speakers have alluded to the success of social media campaigns at large companies including Coca Cola, Liberty and Louis Vuitton.
These examples of social media success have not been helpful to people like me running a small enterprise for several reasons
- The success of a social media campaign at Coca Cola measured in new Twitter followers or Facebook ‘likes’ may be large relative to the kind of success an SME would be delighted with, but actually very modest to a multi-national.
- The cost to Coca Cola or Luis Vuitton of a social media campaign will be calculated in hundreds of thousands of dollars and while there is a return on investment of say 100,000 new Twitter ‘followers’ it will hard to calculate its actual value separate from the ROI of the more conventional print, TV and radio campaigns running parallel.
- Coca Cola and the like can muscle their way to apparent or real social media success through sheer weight of money spent while SMEs have not got that option but must use their ingenuity for a Twitter campaign or a YouTube clip to make a difference
Antidote:
Seminars on social media useful to SMEs will cite and examine examples of real SME success in using the likes of Twitter and Facebook to develop business. Real world examples such as those detailed here are more instructive and show how modest involvement in Twitter can bring real results.
BS3. Going viral is a reasonable ambition
We have all heard of YouTube clips produced and published by individuals with nothing more than a phone camera that have provoked hits in their millions. While demonstrating the potential of social media these YouTube successes are very much the exception.
It is the very nature of the unusually successful that they be scarce. Any social media ‘guru’ advocating that clients aim for ‘virality’ are kin with theatre agents suggesting ambitious amateur singers sink their energies into getting a good audition on ‘Britain’s got talent’ or ‘X factor’ Individuals who have had even the opportunity to gain a modicum of success via these channels are as rare as five-legged dogs.
Antidote:
Realistic, focussed and more modest goals in social media will advance your business. Rather than dream of global fame look at social media as an economic means to implement concrete territory/interest/industry specific strategies.
To give one example, recognising that all artists are essentially sole traders with modest marketing budgets but plenty to show and tell I have made it my business to attract members of the Glasgow and Edinburgh art community to my tweets and blogs on social media marketing by posting information that is directly relevant to them. Peppering my blog with ‘art’ relevant content I have attracted the interest and ultimately the paying interest of over 140 different people including visual artists, crafts-people and publishers.
BS4. Social media in business is all about finding new business
By way of this 4th example of social media BS I want turn to an important but rather less famous use of social media.
Social media is not simply a tool for finding new business. It’s a tool for consolidating existing business – it’s a customer service tool.
People working in many industries they themselves would not describe as ‘sexy’ can have a hard time seeing what social media can do for them. Musicians and visual artists are in the business of publishing (making public) their business. A guitarist can see an obvious benefit in posting YouTube clip of his concerts. A painter can post regular photo updates of their work. Accountants don’t have the kind of news and visuals that are going to set the world alight so they wonder what possible use could it be to tweet or blog?
Antidote:
Here’s a 4 part antidote for accountants who succumb to BS4 (If you work in another ‘unsexy’ industry think about how you can adapt the antidote)
- Think of social media as a customer service tool!
- Sign up/alert your clients to subject specific twitter accounts you set up such as Wealth Management and Tax compliance via e-mail/newsletter
- Use these Twitter accounts to alert followers to new blog posts or YouTube presentations you post on their respective subjects – new posts or presentations can cover changes in tax compliance laws, investment opportunities, important market trends, government initiatives etc
- Foster discussions – request and answer questions of clients that other clients with like queries or problems may benefit from (Think of social media posts as interactive newsletters)
Implementing a customer service strategy like this will provide a useful service and enable you to show the personable nature of your company to clients and ultimately consolidate your hold on their business.
P.S
Depending on how you read BS4 it can be both true and false. The customer service strategy detailed here will not only perform a useful customer service role but will also, if implemented properly, attract the attention of potential clients.
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