AdAge has been beating up on social media lately. Matt Creamer wrote last week that popularity doesn’t lead to influence or sales. In the current issue, Rance Crain, who admits that the topic confuses him, writes “advertisers don’t even know what the primary purpose of social media is supposed to be.” Sorry, but that train left the station a long time ago.
Creamer, Crain, and the rest of the “social media is dead” crowd are right about two things: “… social media … threatens to warp our understanding of influence” (Creamer) and “it’s a jungle out there, and advertisers aren’t even sure what the latest entries are supposed to do for them” (Crain).
Before I defend social media, a question: Has advertising alone led you to buy a big-ticket item, like a car, flat-screen TV, or camera in the past five years? Or did you read online reviews, ask friends for their experience and opinions, and then go see what the company had to say about itself on its website? Just wondering.
What’s social media supposed to do for companies?
Social media isn’t supposed to do anything for companies. A Twitter account or a Facebook fan page is no substitute for an integrated marketing campaign.
Warping our understanding of influence is exactly what social media has done. Influence can and does change behavior, and it can and does lead to action and sales. Given the vast amount of information people can access, they can easily look to other people before they look to brands for information.
There’s a big reason for that. For decades, brands lied, exaggerated, omitted facts, glossed over defect, and generally weren’t very friendly toward consumers. Social media changed the balance of power because now we have the tools to talk to other consumers about brands. Smart brands join in the conversation.
There is no longer a market for “messages.” But, as Hugh Macleod so wisely notes, “the market for something to believe in is infinite.”
Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media, including Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. His over-the-top personality and sometimes startlingly offbeat knowledge and techniques (he had Conan O’Brien eat dirt when he was on his show) have made his Wine TV Library a huge success. And yes, it sells wine. Wine makers vie for his reviews and curry his favor because Vaynerchuk knows how to sell wine.
BlendTec says it has increased its sales 700% by running the droll and sometimes hilarious “Will it Blend?” Videos on YouTube, blending everything from an iPad to GloSticks and even a sneaker. (Please see Top 7 Reasons Why Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” is one of the all-time great viral campaigns. And yes, iPhone 4 blends.)
What it takes to create evangelists and sales with social media:
- A great product or service because, if your product sucks (a problem many observers seem to think Burger King has), nothing else matters.
- Close integration of digital, social, mobile with offline advertising, events, PR, direct marketing, sales promotion. (Best Buy is a champion in this area.)
- Entertaining content is a good place to start. Ask Blendtec. But that alone is not enough. Not to sound like a broken record, but integration with social media, digital, offline and sales promotion are key.
- Include social media in product development. Doing that saves costs in research and testing, and increases brand loyalty. Just ask Dell.
- Selling what people want, using social media, without a heavy-handed pitch. Dell claims that its Twitter presence led to $3 million in sales plus lots of earned media. They don’t hit people over the head with a sales message in Twitter. Its website, online and offline advertising, direct mail and word of mouth convey the brand’s features.
- Using social media for customer/tech support. Twitter has led to huge savings in tech support for companies, such as BestBuy, Verizon, and ComCast.
So yes, it’s a jungle out here. And yes, everything is changing for advertisers, marketers and consumers. We’re in the earliest days of this communications revolution. And it’s way too soon to write off social media.
We may move on from Twitter or Facebook (if 600 million people get tired of it or some big company buys it and screws it up). But that won’t mean social media is a failure. That will just mean it’s evolving. I’m hoping these AdAge editor’s views will do the same.
Tags: AdAge, BL Ochman, Matt Creamer, Rance Crain, social media marketing, social media ROI
Thoughtful, incisive post!
Brands, companies, owner-operators, and managers cannot afford to ignore what’s being said or written about their businesses by others, most especially by their own customers. They can’t sit passively on the sidelines without making concerted efforts to influence the conversation, even if they can’t control it.
People forget that user reviews and ratings in all their myriad forms are an important part of what we call “social media.” Ditto blogs and email, letters to the editor and coffee shop conversations. Facebook, YouTube, et al are just the tip of the iceberg.
Socially-empowered consumers have discovered they really don’t have to put up with shoddy workmanship or service. Businesses that don’t rise to the new occasion aren’t going to get a pass. As United Airlines famously found out, you can’t go breaking your customers’ guitars with impunity.
Buckle up – it’s shaping up to be one heckuva ride.
I am a huge proponent of social media, and one of the first to stand up for it. While social media is not right for every business, it can be hugely helpful when combined with a strong marketing strategy. You are right on in stating that it is definitely not over – it just needs more consideration before leaping in feet first with no life-vest.
Rod and Kirsten – thanks for your kind words. it is a helluva ride indeed. The bottom line is that integration will become the norm, but that is still going to take years.
We’ve only just begun.
I’m so glad I hadn’t read the `Social Media is dead’ reports – are these people off their rocker. How can something so ‘new’ for non-early adopters already be dying out.
I adore social media and have built my business on it so far and I think it’s far from even giving birth let alone dying. People are saying that email is dead and that’s been around over 20 years now and is also going strong.
I love the examples you’ve given below – both Gary V and Blendtec plus Starbucks are examples I give in my social media bootcamp as are Proctor and Gamble with Old Spice which did increase their sales hugely as well as their profile.
There’s so many innovative new services businesses can take advantage of and many creative ideas they can use social media for to further their reach, credibility and influence. Great post and make sure you send it to the naysayers!
Natalie
Social media is going through the same skepticism that greeted the introduction of radio, TV, and the web. It’s hard to imagine a new way to communicate when decades have trained us in what is most accepted and understood. Just like TV didn’t replace radio and VCRs didn’t not close down theaters, social media will become a growing part of the marketing and communication mix. As we face a multitude of interaction options what may become even more important is how different generations choose to consume information and how marketers react to that.
Social Media is still in the early innings…probably the 2nd inning. Social Media platforms may change ownership or faces like you mention, but there will be some upstart right behind to fill the void. What these ad agencies are missing is loss of CONTROL. It now belongs to the community, who shape, review, punish, or reward your product or service. They now have a voice. When the pain becomes great enough for them, action will occur. The longer they wait the further away from the train station they will be. Time to jump on board.
Nice post!
I agree with all of the comments here – we are still in very early stages of social media as a marketing channel, I think it has been the rapid adoption that puts the perception of a matured media out there, and all that really comes back to is the accessibility and little to no cost nature of it.
Other media and forms of communication will continue to exist, and really to ignore, or not use these as part of your overarching strategy can be detrimental to business and the bottom line.
Some great insights!
thank you very much Natalie, Howard, Blair, Brigid and everyone else who added to the conversation or re-tweeted this post.
We are still in the Internet’s infancy. It soon will be considered a utility – that can’t go down any more than electricity or phones can go down. And within a year or two, more people will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktops or laptops. then the real social revolution will begin in earnest.
BL
I think the power of social media is only getting stronger, there seem to be more and more brands focusing their budgets on digital and social as they realise how powerful the sum of many individual conversations can be.