Social media: A marketers dream or nightmare?

October 10, 2010 by Richard Meyer
 
Here's a sign of social networking's growing presence in modern life: It has surpassed TV viewing as the preeminent waster of people's time. At any rate, it tops the waste-of-time standings in a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released this week. Respondents were given a list of six activities and asked to pick the one they regard as "your biggest waste of time." A plurality (36 percent) chose "social networking," putting it easily ahead of runner-up "fantasy sports" (25 percent) and third-place "watching television" (23 percent).
Now some marketers and websites, like Mashable, would have you believe that social media is doing amazing things for brands but I say "show me the money" ! Let me start out by stating the following:
 
1. I believe social media is here to stay.
2. I believe social media is a natural evolution of the Internet.
3. If social media is not supporting brand objectives, measurably, than you're probably wasting time and effort that should be better resourced towards business objectives.
 
There are some brands that are doing very well on social media. These include brands like BMW, Best Buy, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. What makes these brands stand out in social media ? Well they are brands that have done a great job integrating social media without eroding their brand equity. In summary their social media strategy is integrated with their overall brand strategy.
　
I also believe that as social media becomes more mainstream it will begin to fade in hype and popularity. Already people on Facebook are finding out that they are being added to "groups" which whom they want no affiliation. Others are saying that Facebook has gotten just too complicated for them.
 
Twitter has evolved into an instant news site and a site to share updated business information for a lot of people. Those who share where they had lunch and what they did last night are quickly finding people say "who cares ?"
 
What is the lesson here for marketers ? In my view everything we do has to support brand/business objectives, and not with soft metrics like retweets and engagement but hard metrics like; how many of these people became customers or were we able to enhance our brand through engagement thus leading to more business ?
　
A lot of marketers are going to make mistakes when it comes to social media. This is to be expected. The smart ones will learn from their mistakes and get smarter and become better marketers. Others will say "well, we gave it a shot but it didn't work for us". They are the ones that "don't get it".
 
Social media can be a great way to keep your customers happy and win new customers but only if you integrate what you do with how your company acts. If there is a disconnect you find that social media is not going to save your brand.
 
http://socialmediatoday.com/richardmeyer/199606/social-media-marketers-dream-or-nightmare