In the recent Insight Brief “The Future of Social Media Marketing” eMarketer has examined the future of Social Media. Its conclusion? Social Media has only one constant – change.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007513
There is a lot of talk about the value of Social Media. As regulars to this blog know I am something of a skeptic.
Social Media is one of the best metric’d vehicles for advertising and marketing to come along in years.
Yet when the proponents of Social Media are asked for a rationality for it in economic terms, the arguments I hear liken social media adoption to that of the PC and initial forays on the web.
This turns off traditional media buyers who are looking for something more tangible.
Professor Martin who runs Sheerwater Blog (http://shearwaterblog.wordpress.com/) has an interesting post today on Twitter, citing the study done RJ Metrics (http://www.rjmetrics.com/ who combines a number of analytics together.
It confirms the position that despite the huge buzz around Twitter – its adoption is somewhat sporadic and its usage is decidedly inconsistent.
The web can be an unforgiving place when you venture into un-prepared. Even established brands can get trashed quickly by the mood of the crowd.
The mood of the crowd moves on but on the web everything stays there forever. And the crowd does tend to report bad things rather than good things.
How many tweets have gone out about “how great is someone’s Prius” vs say “it’s the brake system or the cruise control”?
The process of Social Media is not a dark art where there are specific experts. Common sense in the main will carry the day. However when it comes to optimizing your delivery mechanism – then do seek help. Just don’t confuse the delivery with the message.
In my humble opinion, the use of social media has to be a clearly thought out process. I don’t buy that just because everyone is there – you need to be making noise as well.
Lemming behavior never benefits anyone (just as the airlines). I do agree with many of my fellow TNoozers that you cannot avoid it. However attempting to control it – well that’s akin to putting fingers in the dyke.
So here is my advice on the subject. If you are expecting to get ROI from social media... well it doesn’t happen.
Once you are involved – you have to stay involved. Focus your attention on providing value. And remember that the crowd is not collective wisdom.
Anyone who relies on the wisdom of the crowd will be brought down by it.
Social Media has only one constant – and that is change, according to conclusions in eMarketer's recent The Future of Social Media Marketing.
There is a lot of talk about the value of social media, but as regulars readers will know I am something of a skeptic.
Social media is one of the best metric’d vehicles for advertising and marketing to come along in years, yet when its proponents are asked for a rationality for it in economic terms, the arguments I hear liken social media adoption to that of the PC and initial forays on the web.
This turns off traditional media buyers who are looking for something more tangible.
The Shearwater Blog had an interesting post recently about Twitter, citing the study done RJ Metrics which combines a number of analytic tools together.
It confirms the position that despite the huge buzz around Twitter, adoption is somewhat sporadic and its usage is decidedly inconsistent.
The web can be an unforgiving place when you venture into un-prepared. Even established brands can get trashed quickly by the mood of the crowd.
However, the mood of the crowd moves on but everything stays forever on the web. And the crowd does tend to report bad things rather than good things.
How many tweets have gone out about “how great is someone’s Prius” vs, say, “it’s the brake system or the cruise control”?
The process of social media is not a dark art where there are specific experts. Common sense in the main will carry the day. However when it comes to optimizing your delivery mechanism then do seek help. Just don’t confuse the delivery with the message.
The use of social media has to be a clearly thought out process. I don’t buy that just because everyone is there that you need to be making noise as well.
Lemming behavior never benefits anyone (just as the airlines). I do agree with many of my fellow TNoozers that you cannot avoid it. However attempting to control it... well, that’s akin to putting fingers in the dyke.
So here is my advice on the subject. If you are expecting to get ROI from social media... it doesn’t happen.
Once you are involved – you have to stay involved. Focus your attention on providing value. And remember that the crowd is not collective wisdom.
Anyone who relies on the wisdom of the crowd will be brought down by it.