What if going viral was the beginning of the end for your company instead of a dream come true? Or, spending hours on end tweeting, posting, and conversing was an epic waste of time? What if you could get past the hype and discover the real secret to social media success? Would it change how you use the channel for your business?
Participation in social media is relatively new to most traditional marketers. When you come to the channel from a direct marketing background as I did, it’s natural to look for landmarks and guidance through unfamiliar territory. Landmarks are hard to find because social media is vastly different from every other channel. Guidance is questionable because most of it is based on the experiences of people creating personal brands instead of established businesses.
Being a direct marketer, I’ve spent the last few years doing what direct marketers do. I tested. And, I tested some more. I followed the guidance of the people who preceded me and documented the results. When my results were less than stellar (translation: dismal), I compared what we were told to do with what the guides were actually doing. I found that many of the leaders were buying followers, using bots, and generally speaking, misleading people who wanted to learn about the channel.
There were many times during the process of learning about social media that I was tempted to walk away from it. The ugliness of communities warring over perceived slights was almost too much to handle. Please feel free to call me stubborn for continuing to persist. Some of my best friends do. But, before you do, you should know that there was more to it than an unwillingness to accept defeat. I saw something in all of the chaos and misdirected guidance that can make the difference between a company’s success and failure.
There is a secret to social media success that has nothing to do with viral marketing, very little to do with fan/follower acquisition, and everything to do with customer relations.
Viral campaigns are extremely rare, attract hit-&-run shoppers, require extensive resources to manage, and are impossible to replicate. Social media is much more than a rainbow chasing channel. It is an opportunity to convert transactional relationships into interactive ones.
Social media isn’t an acquisition channel, it is a retention tool. Think about that for a minute. Social networking is better at keeping customers than it is at getting them. If this is true, then most social marketing strategies start at the wrong place. They begin with the platform and creating content designed to attract conversation. A better approach is to begin with your customers and let them guide you.
Coca-Cola figured this out pretty quickly. Well, in fairness, they lucked into it because their fans built their community. The corporate decision to adopt the community instead of dismantling it was a stroke of genius, but the heavy lifting was done by the fans.
Odds are that your company isn’t like Coca-Cola with avid fans that invest their time in creating a community to honor your products or services. You have to do the heavy lifting yourself. It’s possible that you’ll get lucky if you start with the platform and try to attract customers. But why take that chance?
Wouldn’t it be better to start with your customers and let them guide you? After all, improving relationships with your customers should always be your primary objective. Here are some tips to get things started:
- Capture your customers’ social media user information at every touchpoint. Have your IT team add some fields to your database to store the data. If they can’t do it, get a better IT team. Use other tools to store the information until the new team gets everything set up.
- Use the captured information to budget your resources. The platform that has the most customer participation gets the most resources. This is no different from managing your catalog campaigns. Put your money where you get the most return.
- Establish benchmarks so you can see cause and effect even when measurable metrics are hard to capture. It’s possible to measure the unknown if you create a good foundation.
- Measure the value of customers by acquisition and participation source. You may find that the new customers coming in aren’t as valuable as the ones who are cycling out. The sooner you know this, the less money you’ll lose.
- Reach out to your customers via the social channels. They are easier to recognize now that you’ve captured their handles. Talk to them and start something special.
Social media provides a way for direct marketing and catalog companies to get to know their customers. It’s a shame to waste that opportunity on pipe dreams of rainbows, unicorns, and viral campaigns. And, who knows? You might just become the next big thing.
If you like this post, please share it with your community. You may also like these:
- Social Media – Oversold and Undervalued
- The Three Levels of Social Media Involvement – Which One Fits Your Company?
- Setting Realistic Social Media Goals, Objectives, & Expectations
- Choosing an All Star Social Media Team
- How to Succeed in Social Media for Less Than Remarkable People
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I am not surprised that the Media is just like fog – you see what you want to see or what it wants you to see.. It is even a conspiracy from time to time:(
Anna recently posted..Who cares about the dental veneers cost nowadays?
Isn’t that always the case?
I think the most important aspect of social media is that you need to benchmark, test and verify the results. Most people probably don’t know how good social media can be for their business, and many don’t realize how effective social media is. Without a way of measuring the success of social media, they are blindly using that form of communication without realizing the effect it has with their customers.
Paul Salmon recently posted..The Storage Server – Not Just For Large Businesses Anymore
I agree Paul.
It very true if your just following the rules and not stretching them a bit and also not working with a team to spread the word. its very ovbious that a bot is sending a message and not a human so the real followers wont follow.
Blog it 3d recently posted..How To Take Advantage of an Article Writing Bot
Thank you for sharing.
“If they can’t do it, get a better IT team” I have to say that I love this. So many businesses try their hand at social media just to shrug their shoulders and say “I don’t know what all the hype’s about…ain’t workin’ for me” Your post is refreshing and insightful. Businesses need to use social, but it isn’t a one size fits all ~David Walker
David Walker recently posted..Why I Thought About You All Weekend
Hi David,
Thank you. You’re right with “businesses need to use social, but it isn’t one size fits all”. Successful participation requires time and commitment.
Hi Debra,
i agree with Paul. Social Network is useful for Business. Google like Social Network so much and we all need Success with Google. Sorry, but its true. Social Networks are the Future. All People i know, have an Account. And this People are Costumers.
Thank you for this great Post and sharing your Tips.
Hi Sandy,
Social network are part of a good marketing strategy but they need to focus more on customers than prospects to be the most effective.
I agree with you that having business socially is more than chasing a rainbow. It’s not that easy but I hope I don’t get wrong on my track.
I hope you don’t get on the wrong track too.
Great post Debra. I really need to figure out a way to capture my customers social media handles. That would be huge. Also I agree with you about the social media gurus lying to the public. Many buy followers and don’t tell the truth about what they are doing.
Hi Tim,
Check your customer database for empty customizable fields. Most systems have a few available or can add them as needed. Good luck.
very imformative thanks Debra
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Interesting perspective, and one that anecdotal evidence tells me is probably true. But I still believe in Twitter as a way of “meeting” people that can then be brought into the fold through deeper connections (via a website and having something of value to offer).
This is obviously from the perspective of service industries.
The other aspect of social media is that it keeps you in touch with what is happening in the business world – an aspect that not many people talk about.
Hi Michael,
Twitter is my favorite tool for meeting people online. I agree that the relationships that start there can evolve into something deeper but it is a small part of an integrated marketing strategy. Social media strategies that begin with the existing customer base have an advantage over those that begin with nothing. My perspective comes from working with retail and business to business clients and includes extensive analysis of activity and results.
Thank you for stopping by.
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