Tag Archives: Social media marketing

October 10, 2012 · 9:21 am

Inappropriate Brand Behavior

The folks at Lab42 put out a piece of research concerning how consumers interact with brands on Facebook.

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I find it illuminating although not particularly surprising. Let’s see what you think.

As reported by the Media Post folks:

Nearly one-half of social media users have liked a brand without ever having intentions to buy from them. Among those 46%, more than one-half say they were motivated to like the brand by a freebie, and 46% simply wanted to associate with the brand, even though they couldn’t afford the brand’s products.

As they say on Facebook, OMG!  People have ulterior motives, although I’m not really sure that wanting to save a buck or seeing certain products as aspirational are exactly out of the norm.  In fact only 14% of social media users who like brand pages say they do so out of loyalty to the brand.  What’s even more interesting are the reasons people gave for un-liking a brand:

73% of social media users have un-liked a brand, citing a high frequency of brand posts, no longer liking the brand, or a bad customer experience as reasons for doing so.

In other words, the brand is using Facebook (and probably other social media as well) as yet another marketing megaphone rather than as a way to conduct conversations with consumers.  In fact, there is a segment of the Facebook base – 15% or so – who just don’t like brands at all, mostly out of privacy concerns and not wanting the clutter in their news feeds.  Of course, communication from a brand is only perceived as clutter if it has no value to the recipient (and for the record there are certain people who are guilty of doing the same thing to their friends’ feeds).

All of this makes sense.  Facebook and other social media are not where people go to interact with brands and brand messaging – that would be a brand’s website.  Obviously social media is a place brands need to be but they need to respect why users are there and interact appropriately.  Giving something of value is clearly appealing – cluttering up news feeds is not.

What are your thoughts?  Do you like brands on Facebook and other social media?  How is their behavior?  Have you un-liked any?  How come?

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September 19, 2012 · 10:08 am

Should You Abandon Your Website?

I came across an interesting article on Marketing Profs the other day.  Called “Four Reasons to Jettison the Traditional Website and Go Social it advocates a point of view that I’ve discussed with clients and would like to throw out to you today.  The author puts it out there like this:

Everywhere around me now, I see companies dispensing with the traditional website in favor of integrating the most popular social networks right into the website and communicating with customers in real-time via tweets and Facebook posts. Big players like Skittles and Coca-Cola have completely bought into social, as have savvy small mom-and-pop shops.

He then goes on to explain why brands might not need websites any more, including reasons such as “it’s fresh, it’s affordable,” and others.  I disagree with his point of view.  First, brands need a home base.  As you might have noticed, the social world isn’t exactly a unified place.  Sure, Facebook is the main place consumers go, but they don’t really go there to interact with brands (and as we discussed a while back, brands haven’t figured out how not to behave like brands).  How many companies took a step back in their social effort when Timeline was deployed?  That’s an example of why you need to control the platform as well as the content.

The author also does a disservice to his readers with this statement: “Compared with the cost of building a website from scratch, plus maintaining it, establishing a business presence on a social network is ultra affordable.”   This perpetrates a mindset too many clients have about social – it’s cheap and easy.  Neither could be further from the truth.  Sure, anyone has access to Facebook for free, but many of the support tools needed aren’t free and you still need humans to support the effort.

The gist of his argument is that big brands are very focused on social and they don’t do anything without testing and retesting to make sure it works so you should do it too.  Putting aside the “follow them off the roof” mentality, I agree that everyone needs to be including social elements in their marketing although I don’t think we can simply say get on Facebook and Twitter and be done.  A well-designed and supported website can accomplish a lot more for your brand than can a social front door.

I won’t be advising my clients to shut off or redirect their web efforts any time soon.  What about you?  What do you think?

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September 6, 2012 · 8:26 am

Nuance

Does anyone remember nuance?

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You know – the subtle differences that are out there in the non-virtual world.  Maybe it’s why some folks see Azure, Cyan, or Turquoise while others just see Blue.  Nuance is why some people who can read the words really can’t understand the meaning of what they’ve read.  It’s for sure why some managers have issues with their staff and peers – they can’t hear the nuances in tone that are so critical in interpersonal communications.

I worry about nuance from time to time.  Most of the communication we all seem to have these days is via the written word – email, social posts, and texts.  None of those things have nuance.  I think that’s in part where emoticons came from.  They can help add nuance to social posts (and are totally inappropriate for business communications, kids).  I also think that we all have been on these lengthy email chains from time to time because someone is missing the nuance in one of the notes.  Ever wonder why a brief phone call or in person meeting resolves the back and forth issues?  Nuance.

It’s not just written stuff that lacks nuance.  A lot of the evolving social scoring or influence measurement totally misses the nuance of influence.  Two of the most influential people in my life can barely turn on a computer and are invisible on the social web.  They have neither Facebook nor Twitter nor other social accounts.  The people who are influencers in my life that are online don’t have tons of followers or friends.  I checked one of my friend’s Klout score and it’s in the teens but people online and offline come to him for advice and guidance all the time.  Quantity certainly misses nuance and even attempts to measure the quality of his user base fall short.

What matters isn’t how many Twitter followers and Facebook fans you have or your business has.  What matters is how you and your business turn those embryonic links into real relationships – ones that involve nuance in the interpersonal communications.  That leads to buzz but it also leads to more satisfying bonds with your friends, your staff, your clients, and your customers.

You see the nuances?

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