The Upcoming Battle of the Social Media Industry
Earlier this week I made a post about why companies need to add a social media strategy budget to their 2010 marketing plans. The first reason on my list was the ability social media gives a company to listen to their customers.
Listening to the unfiltered thoughts, complaints and praises of customers via social media carries a huge benefit for the companies who know how to leverage it. That said, it’s also one of the most terrifying aspects of social media for many brands. Fear of what will be said is still one of the biggest reasons companies are afraid to dip their toes into the social media waters.
Last week Zane Safrit pointed to an interesting article over at Business Week that examines corporate fear of social media negativity.
Zane hit the nail on the head when he titled his response “Shooting the Social Media Messenger” He wrote:
Zane offers some great insight (so make sure you go read his post) and it got me to thinking a little more deeply about the root of corporate social media fear.
On some level, companies seem to have this idea that if they keep their heads low and stay quiet, they can pass, unnoticed through the era of social media and go about their business. Unfortunately, the likelihood of ignoring social media and staying a successful company is becoming about as likely as ignoring the Internet and staying a successful company. It can be done, but it’s unlikely. There’s a mistaken idea that the collective voice of social media and NOT the company itself will be the source of negative commentary.
From Business Week:
Ok…back up a minute here.
Thousands of bloggers attacked Motrin because of something Motrin DID, not because they COULD…and there’s a big difference there.
There was a time where companies could launch an ill-fated or poorly targeted or even a downright offensive campaign to the world and remain mostly protected from backlash. There might be a slight dip in sales or even a few angry letters and phone calls, but unless some angry consumer had a mainstream media connection, things mostly got ignored. These days, a stay-at-home-mom can have an online network of millions she can access with a few keystrokes. The voices and opinions haven’t changed, they’ve just been given reach.
That’s a hard pill for some companies to swallow. It’s far easier to “blame” social media and the “angry mobs” that form than it is to admit the angry mob never would have formed in the first place if the company hadn’t done something dumb.
But That’s Not the Point I Want to Make
The commentary I’ve seen on this article so far pretty much stopped there. It points out the fear companies have of engaging with consumers because consumers might react poorly to their ideas. There’s a bit of irony to be had here when you realize some social media types are jumping on the article because of it’s shoot the messenger mentality. Why? Because the article goes on to make some very good points that really need to be addressed by our community.
Let’s read that last sentence again…
And THEREIN lies the problem…
While I’m a social media strategist for small businesses, my background is in organic search engine optimization. In other words, I come from the “original” snake oil of online marketing. Social media, for all it’s hype and loyalists STILL hasn’t broken through the mainstream marketing barrier. It’s where SEO was half a dozen or more years ago. It’s fighting to define itself, to justify itself and to legitimize itself.
It’s not going to be an easy battle.
We’re Going to Have a Big Mess to Clean Up
Sure, we can point out how many companies are devoting dollars to it. We can give case study after case study of companies both large and small who have seen glorious success with social media. Guess what? We could do the same thing with SEO, to some degree we could demonstrate success more concretely.
It’s still a new industry with undefined rules and a million and one consultants out there blazing new trails. The sad reality is, more companies will be burned by social media “experts” than will be helped by them this year.
To this day, I still talk to companies who have been burned time and time again by search engine marketers. Small businesses who have invested thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars into search engine optimization strategies that were outdated, ineffective and totally untargeted.
And THAT is what will happen with social media as well.
Social media is evolving at an ever increasing pace. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, FriendFeed, Flickr, MySpace, Yelp, Google Maps, LinkedIn, Blinklist, del.icio.us, Furl, Reddit, Mixx, LiveJournal, tumblr, I could go on and on and on and on. (Heavens knows the list of social media sites does…)
Right now, there are boatloads of social media consultants who promote and measure success by getting a company signed up with a million accounts and building up a million followers.
Who cares?
Social media isn’t a one size fits all solution. Every company will need a completely different strategy for success and guess what? Not all of them need Twitter, or Facebook or even a blog. Finding (or being) a social media strategist isn’t about knowing how to build a presence or set up an account, it’s about knowing how to set goals, establish a way to track those goals and then having the marketing knowledge needed to leverage conversation to reach those goals.
There are lots of great and effective social media strategists out there who can do this. Unfortunately they are severely outnumbered by the ones who can’t. And THAT is what will make the next few years challenging for this industry. The social media strategists who “get it” are going to need to do a lot of educating and expectation setting with clients. They’ll be doing a lot of clean-up as they come in to business relationships with companies who’ve been sold a bill of “get a lot of Twitter followers” goods. They’ll have to work harder to change minds and prove themselves than they would have if they’d gotten there first.
I still see my friends in the world of search doing this. More and more often, they’re the second (or third, or fifth) search agency a client has come into contact with and they have a lot of reeducating and reassuring to do before they land the contract. I fully expect those of us in the social media space are going to quickly find ourselves in the same position.
Social media may be on the rise, but it’s popularity will attract those who are in it just to make a quick buck. That’s going to leave the rest of us playing clean-up. On the bright side, it’s also going to make it easier for the ones who build true and trackable strategies to differentiate themselves and rise to the top.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, the Social Media Faculty Chair for MarketMotive and offers small business social media strategy & consulting. Jennifer enjoys the challenge of finding unique and creative ways to connect with consumers without spending a fortune in marketing dollars. Though she now prefers to work with small businesses, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children.
This column is brilliant. The silliness and messes being created by so-called SEO/SEM/SME experts are getting worse, not better. I had no idea our longevity in this biz would end up being what clients prize most. Companies want -and need- someone to point them the right way, to tell them the truth about any given strategy or tactic, not make a bigger mess for them to clean up.
A lot like SEO social media consulting takes a crafty person who, to do it right, will have to provide a company with a lot of intelligence up front. Its hard to find educated clients who understand this and the uneducated clients will take a gamble on the over zealous “social media expert.”
I thing baby steps are the key when starting out in social media. Personally, and this is very broad, I would always begin by setting up a system of listening to the web based on Google Alerts and Twitter Feed searches. That way a company can at least get an idea of what is being said about its products, services, or at least what is going on in their niche.
For a small local business it might be a simple approach to find a case study online then mimic the tactics.
One of the first things I tell clients is to get in where you fit in. You are right when you say that it is not about having a presence. The presence comes when you learn to use what you have in a more effective way.
Twitter does not work for everyone just as Facebook is not everyone’s cup of tea. I use LinkedIn as just an online resume and never get into the social media aspect of it because to be honest it confuses me.
Now I do think that everyone needs to blog but how they do it is what matters most.
Using social media is a process and not an overnight thing. It takes time to build a community in order to get the result you desire!
Great post!!! I have never read this blog but will be back to read it again!
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