[Note – if this is you first time here (welcome!), please don’t think I’m anti-social media – browse around and you’ll see I’ve been a long time proponent of social media.]
Continuing on the theme of listening to the conversations going around me, today I want to talk about the silliness of social media marketing as the magic elixir for instant small business success.
I’m not surprised to be hearing this sort of talk from marketing consultants and the like. After all, we are selling this stuff. What does concern me is when I start to hear some of, what I will kindly call sales nonsense, being echoed back by business owners. They have been hearing so much of this crap that they are starting to be assimilated.
If you are going to try social media marketing because you have been “disappointed with your results from traditional marketing”, and social media marketing is the answer you have been waiting for because it is “free” and “easy”, and you have plan to “go viral”, then I urge you to step back from the Kool-Aid for a second and give it a second thought.
Social media marketing is still marketing. You still need to have a crystal clear idea of who your ideal customers are. You have to know what is important to them and how to communicate that in their language. You still need to have a system in place to nurture leads and follow up. You still need to have marketing materials (content) that educates rather than trying to sell. You still have to make sure your business follows through on the expectations that are set by marketing. And all of this still takes time.
Yes, social medial provides a lot of advantages and tools that let us do more and connect with more people than ever before. But “free” or “easy” or “automatic”?
Story telling is a big part of marketing. I’d encourage you to take a step back and listen to the stories you are hearing. Are they realistic? Fantasy?
What do you think? Am I just being grumpy or are you hearing the fairy tales too?
