starbucks

Social Media is Not About Being Wildly Successful

By Mark Evans in Social Media 13 Comments Tags: , , ,

I gave a presentation yesterday at the Visability conference yesterday, which naturally included examples of companies that have been very successful using social media. In thinking about the companies to highlight, I tried to stay away from the usual suspects – Comcast, Starbucks, Dell, IBM, etc.

It’s not that these companies aren’t good example, it’s that they are used time and time again to demonstrate the potential of social media, and why companies should be enthusiastically embracing it.

One of the problems is these examples provide a skewed view of how social media works. It gives companies the impression that if they get into social media, they too also enjoy wild success and a surge in popularity. If the old, if they can do it, you can do it too.

The reality is Starbucks, et al are anomalies. Through a combination of luck, timing and smart creative, they’ve hit the social media jackpot. Like a lottery, lots of companies are buying social media “tickets” but few of them win.

Perhaps a better approach in selling the benefits of social media is talking about companies that are enjoying solid success – however you want to define “success” – as opposed to extraordinary success. Maybe we should be talking about companies that have embraced social media, and made it an important part of their business operations.

A good example is Digitcom.ca, a telecom equipment reseller. A year ago, the owner, Jeff Wiener, approach me about starting a blog. I put together a strategic and tactical plan, and helped him set up The Telecom Blog.

Since then, Jeff has really worked it, and made it one of the most popular telecom blogs in Canada. It may not attract a huge number of visitors but the blog has helped bolster the profile for Digitcom and Jeff. It has opened doors for Jeff that may not have presented themselves otherwise, and it’s given Digitcom a bigger digital presence.

In many respects, Digitcom is a social media success story that is a lot more relevant and realistic for companies looking at social media. It provides a better idea of what social media can deliver without setting expectations that are far too ambitious or high.

What do you think? Are we guilty of over-hyping the mega-success stories in social media?

Twitter Ads Won’t Work

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing, Social Media 9 Comments Tags: , , ,

With some time to think about Twitter’s foray into the world of advertising, I’ve come to the conclusion that, at best, it’s going to be a modest success.

It may generate enough revenue to support Twitter’s operations but likely nowhere near the money needed to justify $150-million of venture capital.

This “thesis” is based on the belief that companies using Twitter are already advertising, and they’re being successful because consumers don’t see it as advertising – nor do they find it intrusive.

Take Starbucks, for example, which has signed on as one of Twitter’s initial ad partners. With a significant Twitter footprint, Starbucks is effectively leveraging Twitter to do sales and marketing. The 844, 647 people who follow Starbucks have opted-in to receive “advertisements”. The same goes for people who follow Dell’s @delloutlet, which has 1.56 million followers.

The difference between having an active, marketing-focused Twitter account that consumers find interesting, valuable and engaging, and advertising on Twitter is enormous. As wide is the gap between seeing Starbucks tweet about a new coffee promotion, and Starbucks insert a promotional tweet into your stream. The marketing efforts are one thing, advertising is another thing altogether.

Let’s me clear, Twitter will generate advertising revenue but it will be nowhere as successful as what Google has done because the relationship that people have with their Twitter streams is a lot more personal than seeing a sponsored box beside a search query.

Many companies realize that being active on Twitter and being a good citizen of the TwitterSphere is a lot more effective and less expensive than being an advertiser. If companies without a foothold on Twitter, advertising may offer  a short-cut but it won’t be as effective without a strong Twitter presence.

For more, here’s an article in the Washington Post’s Big Money, which points to Facebook’s struggles in attracting advertising as an illustration of “how hard it is to advertise against a social network”.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...