Two Reactions to Social Media Marketing

"We can get a bunch of customers by having them follow us! Skip paying big hairy media costs! It'll be fun and quick and easy! The new admin can do it!"

 That's the placebo effect social media has on some companies we've encountered. They hear how easy it is and how little it costs compared to their other marketing efforts. It'll solve so many marketing difficulties. The bliss of tweeting and facebooking and youtubing and flickring, and posting any kind of wacky article and in a week 100,000 sites in the webisphere will link to the article and voila! Instant customers. 

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. With the truth. 

"We can't manage all these social sites. We're way behind and we'll never catch up. If we're socializing in social media all day we'll never get any real work done. What if someone says something bad about our company? We're doomed! Doomed, I tell you!!"  

This is the other reaction, the less understood but equally powerful 'nocebo effect'. If you think negative, you get negative. In one study, people were given a sugar pill and were told it induced vomiting. Later, 80 percent of them started throwing up.

It's all doom and gloom until someone dips a toe in the tweet stream. And they see they don't drown. They just get a wet toe.

Social media is neither easy nor is it terribly hard. It just takes time and energy. And some passion. Like most things in life that are worth doing.

photos: mare.bowe, nielsvk

Comments

[Greg]

I've noticed the same thing. Clients who have heard about social media and think it can solve all their marketing problems (because they don't understand social media) or clients who have heard about social media and are deathly afraid of it (because they don't understand social media). As they say, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

[Gene Brady]

Excellent point, Catherine. Companies becoming enamored with social media technology, instead of being enamored with how the technology can be of help to customers. When social media is more about clever gadgetry than customer needs, sales can suffer.

[catherine powers]

Or what about the over-reliance on social media? Today, I was trying to look up something (if they had layaway) on Marshall's Department Store website and encountered such social media overload that I was taken aback. What happened to product info and product description? Then, I looked up a sister store, TJ Maxx, and the same thing. Now, I know these stores are clearinghouses for merchandise and aren't traditional stores like Wal-Mart or Target, but still! These two store websites left me cold. I felt I was in the middle of an online gabfest. I yearned for some good old traditional marketing (product info, pics, description, pricing info, discount coupons) as I clicked through the websites.