Corporate social media marketers “just don’t get it”
This statement is one reason why I started this blog in collaboration with an awesome group of in-house corporate marketers who manage social media from strategy and execution to reporting and metrics.
There is a perception of many in the social media space that corporate marketers just don’t get “social media.” Take this video, for example whereby Loren Feldman of 1938 Media interviewed SEO Expert Michael Gray (full video below) asking about the definition of social media. It’s unclear if it is his definition of social media or what he thinks corporations use social media to achieve. Nonetheless, here are my initial thoughts.
In one statement, Michael says that social media is about customer service and he is right. He cites some really good examples of how companies like Southwest and Comcast utilize social media to find and address customer complaints. However, customer service is JUST one component of social media, and is closely aligned with what Forrester refers to as their listening objective within the POST method. At Intel, we are looking at a comprehensive listening strategy and will utilize several tools to monitor conversations in an attempt to better understand the people we serve.
He goes on to say that (referring to corporate) “they don’t want to connect with you, they don’t want to be your friend”; and I completely disagree with him. We at Intel value our customers and understand that they are real people and that relationships matter more to them than one-way marketing messages.
He also says that social media is a “Google play” for link juice and reputation purposes. While these attributes are definitely a good result of social media; they should not be the driver. I would argue that ANY marketer/consultant who uses social media solely for natural search will fail miserably in the long run, especially if they want to build brand equity and foster relationships with the people that keep them in business.
He goes on to say that social media is “advertising”. WRONG! Now of course many companies do buy advertising within the social media space (i.e. Facebook social ads, display advertising with Federated Media, etc.) but this is merely talking AT the conversation not IN the conversation. Again, this is not social media; and I think that most in the industry would agree with me.
And, lastly Michael says that “transparency” to certain level is okay. Again, I think he is completely wrong as to the true nature of relationship building. Transparency is not telling the world your marketing secrets. Transparency is being completely open and honest about who you are when we are having conversations with people online. Lack of transparency is what got Walmart in trouble a few years ago.
This is by no means is an insult to Michael. He is definitely a well respected and talented SEO dude in the industry and I almost inquired about his services during an RFP process about three years ago when I worked for HP. However, like many SEOs who branch off into social media, I personally think that some still, well … just don’t quite “get it” themselves.
|
Email This Page
Did you enjoy this post? If so, please subscribe to our RSS feed
Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Funny, I was just asked yesterday to summarize what I thought the unique objectives were that social media served well. And I actually lumped them into four categories: PR (influencing), product development, customer support, and marketing. The bottom line is that marketing can no longer influence customers alone. Social media makes it possible for us to share our entire experiences with brands/companies/products–good and bad. That means that tech support experiences are just as important, if not moreso, than marketing campaigns in building brand loyalty. And yes, many marketers still don’t get it!
Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi Michael, thanks for mentioning my video since you brought up some good questions and points I’d like to answer them.
“they don’t want to connect with you, they don’t want to be your friend”
I guess I have a different definition of friend than a lot of silicon valley web 2.0 people. To me a friend is someone who I would invite to my house for dinner. A friend is someone who I would ask to drive me to the airport at O-dark hundred for my vacation. A friend is someone who I would ask to feed my fish while I was on vacation. And a friend is someone who could do and ask the same things of me and not feel bad or guilty about it. I dont expect any company to do that. Can companies build deeper relationships with customers yes, but they aren’t going to be my friend in the true sense of the word.
“Google play”
Links are still one of the primary factors in search engine rankings. Search engines like google are cracking down on all forms of link linkbuilding. One of the few methods that they still say are “ok” is viral content or linkbaiting if you will. So creating articles that target social media audiences with the goal of gaining links is a good strategy. Infact I’d say any social media strategist who ignores the link building component is being professionally irresponsible.
“advertising”
of course it’s advertising, I know lots of web 2.0 gen X and gen Y folks like to think that they are “media savvy” and these things dont work on them, but like it or not it is advertising. Do you think “will it blend” put things in blender because it was fun? Of course not they did it as advertising, they just made it more appealing to newer audiences. You or I may think it’s funny to throw a chuck norris doll in a blender, but my mother in law would never get it.
“transparency”
When apple holds a press release does Steve Jobs get up and say “we’re holding this press conference so you’ll all go out and buy a new ipod to replace the one you already have. It doesnt matter that the one you already own is less than a year old and works perfectly fine and doesnt need to be replaced, because we’d really like you to buy a new one to boost our 4th quarter profits” of course not, but that ultimately what he wants. Sure he wants to show you all the new things it can do, and why its great, but all of that is just to help them move some product.
Maybe I’m just an overly cynical new yorker who doesnt buy into all this peace love rainbows and unicorns stuff.
Anyways thanks for letting me expand on my position.