Posts Tagged ‘social media facts’

Social Media Truths

Comments

November 6th, 2008

This is a follow up to my post on “Social Media Myths” and the topic was recommended by one of readers, “grossidn (her disqus user name).” I thought “social media truths” was an excellent topic and so here we go:

Social Media can be Used for Many Different Things

True. You don’t just have use social media as a pr tool or as a marketing tool. You don’t just have to create a twitter profile or a facebook account. You can use social media for: product development by listening to what your consumer want, for creating buzz around a specific product or service, customer relationship building, for public relations, for marketing, for customer service, internal communication, etc. As I say, you have to “be clever and be creative,” social media can be used for many different things, but you have to know what you want and why you want it.

Social Media is Scalable

True. You betcha is scalable. Companies like Dell have been using social media as a worldwide communication platform and Comcast has been using services like twitter to handle customer complaints and issues. So YES, it’s definitely scalable. As the relationships grow so do the social media efforts that build those relationships.

There are Metrics You Can Use to Measure Success

True. Now be careful here, looking at metrics and measuring overall ROI can be very different. There are certain things you can track via a social media campaign such as page views, leads, conversations, comments, negative vs positive feedback, etc. HOWEVER, you must understand that the purpose of getting involved in social media is ultimately to create conversations, and conversations do not have a quantifiable value. So there are certain things you can track, but understanding the overall ROI is not possible since you cannot quantify a conversation. For example, if you are using the amount of comments as a metric for success but you only receive one comment, is that failure? What if that one comment greatly impacted the way you do business, is it still a failure?

Treat People Online the Way You do Offline

True. Here is where a lot of people go wrong. You have to remember that it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with people online or offline you have to treat them the same. What do I mean by the same? I mean that you have to respect them, show them that you care and that you value their opinion, provide them with some sort of value, reward them, interact with them, and don’t ignore or neglect them!

Social Media is Here to Stay

True. If you are one of those people who still thinks that social media is a fad that is going to blow over, well then I hope you aren’t in charge of marketing, because your company (or you) is going to be in some serious trouble. Let’s put this rumor to bed, social media is not a fad or some sort of fluke. Social media is a way of life and it’s how new businesses and relationships are forming. When you see companies like Dell, Businessweek, and Comcast creating twitter accounts you should know this is not a fad. When you begin to see politicians and celebrities live stream and blog then you know this not a fad. When you are able to see a company like HP increase their sales for a product by 84% then you know this is not a fad. When you read a blog like this you should know that THIS IS NOT A FAD.

Social Media is a Great Way to Build a Brand

True. Without a doubt it is not only a great way but the best way to build a brand. When you want information or when you want to buy a product or service, where do you go? The internet, and if you aren’t on it, then nobody is going to find you. This blog started from 0 “Jacob Morgan” was just another name. Sure I had a lot to offer but nobody knew about me. This blog is around 8 months, I now rank #1 in all search engines for “jacob morgan.” I have received numerous leads, business opportunities, partnerships, and friendships. I am now syndicated and contribute to some of the most known sources on social media and online marketing. I have built my name and it’s only going to be growing. Take a look at folks like Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV who was able to build a multi million organization largely with the help of social media. Yes my friends, social media is a great way to build a brand.

Social Media is Used by Everyone

True. Now when I say everyone I don’t literally mean everyone on Earth, I mean various age groups, races, demographics, etc. are all on social media platforms. My mom has a facebook account my little brother has a website. It doesn’t matter where you go or who you ask, people all over the world are using social media to connect and build relationships.

Social Media is Still Growing

True. While we have seen a strong push towards the social media space, both from organization and individuals, we are still in the early stages “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Imagine a time when most organizations will have a blog, when most senior level exectuvies will be using twitter, when companies will be using internal wiki pages, it’s coming. The earlier you start the better. The space is still new, we are still the early adopters. Now is the time to make your mark and build your brand before everyone else starts doing it.

Social Media Marketing is Not Easy

True. Social media marketing is probably one of the most difficult things a company can do because there are a lot of internal hurdles that need to be overcome from virtually every department, legal is usually the biggest one. Once you get past the internal hurdles though social media marketing is still a challenge and that’s because humans and relationships are a challenge. They are very dynamic. People can love you one day and hate you the next. You have to be able to balance, interact, and listen to every voice that wants to talk to you, and you have to be able to act! Social media is a very powerful medium but your users can say negative things about you just as easily as they can say positive things about you. It takes time, creativity, cleverness, dedication, personality, and a willingness to learn and connect with other people. Remember, you can’t just flip a switch, once it’s on, it’s on for good.

Be Real and Be Yourself

True. It’s very important that you be yourself when you build relationships and interact with people. If you deceive people then it will come back at you 10 fold. There is no point in starting a relationship or connecting with other people if it’s only going to a facade. How would you like it if you dated someone who you found out was lying to you, you’d probably be a little upset right? Be honest about your intentions, your affiliations, and your ideas. If you lie or pretend to be someone you are not, you will exposed. There are no secrets anymore.

As with the social media myths post, I can think of a few other “truths” but I would really like to hear from all of you. What are some other “social media truths” you can think of? Please share them in the comments.

Thanks for reading

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

TAGS: social media facts, social media truths, truth about social media

Social Media Myths

Comments

November 3rd, 2008

After hearing about and witnessing all sorts of odd and strange social media strategies/campaigns/discussions, I decided to address some of the big social media myths out there. I’m sure you know of several social media myths as well so please share them in the comments. Ok, let’s get right into the social media myths:

He who has the most followers or friends wins

False. Quality does not equal quantity. Just because you have 10,000 twitter followers or facebook friends doesn’t mean the quality of your relationships is good, are you interacting with them? are you providing value?

If you create a social media profile, people will talk to you

False. This is a big myth, a lot of people and some companies think that just by creating a facebook fan page or a twitter profile that users are going to want to talk to them, not true! You have to work to earn trust and you have to work to earn the privilege of having your users talk to you.

It’s good to be everywhere

False. Do you really think that if you join 100 social networks you are going to be more successful than someone who joins 3 social networks? Join as many networks as you can maintain and when I mean maintain I mean provide value and interact with those that are engaging with you. Join the networks that are relevant now the ones that are prevalent.

Leave comments everywhere, it’s good for SEO

False. As someone who runs a team of technical SEOs, I hate hearing this. Let’s think about this for a moment, Google has a whole team of phd’s (I have a few I work with) working for them, do you think that leaving a few comments with your desired anchor text is really going to propel you to the top of rankings? There is a lot more to SEO then links, and if you really want to know more then you can e-mail me. Leaving comments is a great idea but don’t do it for SEO, do it to add value to the conversation, that way people will want to visit your site to see what you have to say.

Social media is easy

False. Social media is far from easy in fact I would argue that social media is probably the most difficult aspect of marketing. Why? Because it involves building relationships, growing communities, continuous interaction, and human emotion. Relationships are never easy, and if you think that you can just waltz into the social media game and expect to get great results, well good luck!

Everyone loves me or my brand

False. People and companies alike are oftentimes shocked when they engage their users via social media only to find out that the users actually don’t have anything nice to say about them. Let’s be clear, if you get involved in social media you’re probably going to come across a few people who hate you and a few people that love you. The challenge is keeping the ones that love you happy while converting the ones who hate you into people who love you.

Social media works is a quick strategy

False. Social media does deliver results but if you are the type of person who asks “what can we see in one month from a social media campaign” then don’t even bother getting started because you will fail. Social media takes time, it’s not something you can flip on and off, if it’s on, it’s on forever. Social media is a never ending relationship building mechanism it doesn’t work on a schedule so don’t try. Just remember, every day that goes by is another day that you could have been engaging with your users and building up your community.

Social media is free

False. Now, there are free social media platforms out there such as facebook, wordpress, etc. but social media is far from free. Social media requires a lot of time and commitment for it to succeed. While you may not be paying directly for the tools (some you will pay for) you can bet that you will be paying for the time (or using your own) which in a lot of cases is more valuable then paying for a product.

Social media will make everything ok

False. Social media is one component of a marketing strategy. Sure, social media is the best way to build relationships with your users but you also have to think about SEO, PPC, offline events, print advertising, radio, television, email marketing, etc. (whichever apply to you). Social media is one way to reach people it’s not the only way. Make sure you are reaching out to your users via multiple channels to capture a broader and more targeted audience.

It’s too late to use social media

False. If you think that it’s too late to use social media then you are probably a pessimist. It’s not too late to use social media. Your users and customers are always going to be out there talking about you and the sooner you begin talking to them the better off you are. Every day you wait is another day that you could have been interacting with your customers. Social media is still a baby but it’s taking off quickly. Get involved ASAP.

I can think of several others but I wanted to hear from all of you. What are some of the other social media myths out there and why are they myths?

Thanks for reading everyone!

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

TAGS: facts about social media, false social media ideas, myths of social media, social media facts, social media myths, things about social media that aren't true