The Cluetrain Manifesto states that “Markets are conversations.” The Manifesto is a document published in 1999 and 10 years later it is still considered a leading treatise on the Internet phenomenon, as it relates to the impact and opportunities of the Internet and web technology on the modern businessman. Nowhere has this statement been confirmed more than in the complex and fascinating world of Social Media Marketing (SMM).
What is social media marketing?
Any definition of SMM requires an understanding of social media. These are community oriented networks based on user generated content. For example, YouTube’s main focus is hosting user-generated videos, not promoting the parent company’s products. Social networks include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and many others.
Thus, SMM is the use of these networks to promote and market products, services, or information to the promoter’s intended audience. This could be a traditional product looking for a market, like an author promoting a new novel. Or it could be something much bigger; The 2008 US presidential campaign brought Twitter into the spotlight as a way for candidates to quickly deliver a message to their audience, keeping them up to date on developments in the race. In the latter case, no tangible product was promoted per se, but rather a means of marketing the candidates and their messages. Twitter exploded in popularity after the election and is still a current topic of discussion.
The smart business strategy will seek to understand these opportunities and reach out to available social media markets to directly reach your customers. However, SMM has as many pitfalls as opportunities. Several politicians have made their tweets public and have regretted it. Here are some easy mistakes to make and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1 – Not having a blog
Everybody has a blog. While this may not be true in fact, it is certainly true in perception. Free services like WordPress and Blogspot allow anyone with a connection to have a voice in an organized and attractive way. Twitter, Facebook and other networks are useful, but they are not directly under the control of the user. A blog, however, is, and the marketer will take advantage of that. On a blog, a user can post their thoughts, analysis, and arguments with very little moderation and go into more detail than most social networks allow. For example, Twitter only allows posts of 140 characters, which is certainly too small for a product description or a dissection of a major political speech. However, a short ‘tweet’ telling book fans that their favorite author has been interviewed by a blog will draw people to the site where they will not only read the interview, but probably many other articles on the site as well.
This of course means that good blogging is consistent blogging. A blog cannot be neglected and can only be updated when important things happen – the modern attention span of Internet users is quite short. Bloggers need to consistently post good content to keep engaging their target audience; not month by month, but sometimes even day by day.
Mistake #2: Not qualifying yourself
The web is an explosion of information and getting anyone aware of a product or company on a consistent basis is a challenge. The web marketing expert should seize the opportunity to brand her name with every networking opportunity. If a company has a blog and a product website, they should be connected. The blog should further the main purpose of the site, and the site should refer visitors to the great content on your blog. Posts on social networking sites should reference this ‘brand’ image and keep the message consistent across all of them. The successful SMM campaign will treat each element as a unified whole and will approach them systematically. Every Twitter message, every Facebook post needs to remind users who is posting what content and where they can find more.
Mistake #3 – Not being nice
As mentioned above, “Markets are conversations.” Internet users are not robots. They will respond with a pre-programmed action when a certain combination of criteria is applied. They are people with ideas who think critically and who have become accustomed to giving their opinions. While a marketer should take every opportunity to promote his message, this doesn’t mean forcing him into every conversation. Participants on social networking sites will quickly spot the clumsy efforts of some sellers and let their acquaintances know of their dissatisfaction. A bad reputation can spread quickly on the internet: a certain St. Louis police officer lost his job when a video of the officer abusing his authority was posted on Google.
So the right tactic is not to see these markets as just places to advertise, but places to talk. Simply going on Facebook and posting a new product to every available group is a quick way to get noticed and ignored as incompetent. On the other hand, a user could join various groups with discussions related to the topic of their personal passions and cultivate friendships and a reputation as a quality commentator. Then, when they refer people to your blog, they are more likely to take you seriously. Simple courtesy and respect for groups can go a long way toward securing a few more views per post.
At its core, SMM requires thought, persistence, and critical thinking just like any other marketing campaign. It is not a short series of clever commercials that can be broadcast for several months at a time, but a constant means of communication, day in and day out, with a targeted audience. A good SMM should provide consistent and consistent content for its target markets and be prepared to engage in a lot of give and take with an audience specially prepared to make its voice heard.
