10 Things They Never Told You About Social Media
Don’t drink the Social Media Kool-Aid
So you want to ‘get into social media’, huh?
Firstly, I’ve written posts that make me think I should have opened the fucking kool-aid stand. Oh well. Sue me: I’m doing a 180. But then again, if I didn’t make as many mistakes as I had, I wouldn’t have learned a damn thing. If my coaches and mentors hadn’t said ‘wait, wait, wait, stop – wtf are you talking about?’ I wouldn’t have realised as much as I have.
This week I’ve started building and training the new digital and social media team: and what’s apparent from both agencies and clients alike, is that there’s all these rules and all this musts and it’s all.. bullshit.
So, friends, here’s the 10 things they never told you.
- Businesses do this for the bottom line, not holding hands
- You don’t have to respond to everything that is said: just set expectation with your community
- Data is critical, knowledge is success – know the difference
- The biggest social networks don’t always have the best return: Facebook isn’t always the answer
- Social media as a stand alone strategy, rarely does all that well (you need wider digital and other media support): try SEO, PPC
- Understanding your or your clients sales funnel is critical to strategy (and selling it internally)
- Social Media is bigger than marketing, PR and customer service – hence why it’s hard to pick a leader
- Online communities can take years to build meaningful relationships: is your agency to prepared to hang in there? Is your client?
- Social media campaigns can exist. Set your expectations: if you want to run a 3 month social media campaign, just set the expectations (in the word of Scott Drummond: the party’s here for 2 months, after that, you can go home)
- Social media experts exist: they’re just people who know a little more than the next person, in a given situation – I have no idea why it became “insightful”, or cool more to the point, to denounce social media professionals.
Another 11
These people work in this day to day. Not just for show, or for a sense of belonging. Puts some food on the table. And these people have also been kind enough to answer the same question. Most of their answers will form new blog posts for me:
- Gavin Heaton, (my hero) Social Media Director, SAP: how to deal with the “social” when it becomes “personal”
- Jess Nichols: You need to find a balance between not sharing anything & oversharing everything. So many people go to extremes & can do more harm than good
- Mandi Bateson, Digital Planning Director, Daemon Digital: How defensive people get when you take the conversation from a company level down to people – on both sides of the fence. eg. managing internal or client astroturfers who are proud of their work and pounce on negative feedback b/c they take it personally
- Alex Asigno, Head of SEO, Switched On Media: the importance of listening
- Karalee Evans, Social Media Manager, Amnesia : In my humble opinion, the number 1 untaught lesson: how little ROI is understood in Social Media. The misconceptions of Social Media as intangible needs to be addressed.
- Lucie Snape, Digital Strategist, Ogilvy: the importance of managing your personal brand
- Marek Wolski, Digital Marketer: Patience. Its a long term commitment that builds relationships. It takes time to create, implement & optimise your crm in social contexts.
- Tiphereth Gloria, Social Media Manager, GPYR Sydney: how much people want brands to have a human face i.e. admit mistakes, be real, apologise, move on
- Heather Snodgrass, Strategy Director, We Are Social: it depends how good your teacher is!
- Nicola Swankie, Account Director, McCann: just how labour intensive it is
- Kimberley Lee, PR Communications, ParkYoung: although online connection is great, don’t forget about the power of offline connections too.
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About Jye
Jye Smith is currently the Digital Strategist for Weber Shandwick Australia. Ranked in B&Ts 30 Under 30, he's a regular keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who specialises in digital strategy, social media marketing, and change management.
Massive, massive thanks to all my digi-kids who answered.
Nice article Jye Smit ;)
A great honest and insightful piece. So good to read something that is short, succinct and really gets you thinking. Also good to hear from others in the industry. This really shows how important it is to have a strong understanding of what is going to work for clients in the digital space. The only way to avoid mistakes would be to never try anything new and where would that get anyone?
Jay,
Social media, like everything else that came before it, is just another option. Used well it can provide great awareness and even deliver desired outcomes. Also like any other tool, used badly or without appropriate understanding of what you want to achieve, it can fall flat (or worse create issues). Real experts will generate results (like most other professional activities), the band wagon huggers who don’t fully understand and want a free ride will most probably wonder why it is not working for them. Great outcomes are directly linked with hard work, persistence, understanding your audience and a good focus on mutual value creation.
@Lucie: Sorry, Lucie :) All fixed.
@Katy: Thanks for your kind words, Katy.
@Arthur (It’s Jye by the way ;)) Nice little site you have too – really enjoyed the Zoo. Thanks for your comments, really liked your last line! Will be filing that one away.
Sorry Jye – my attention to detail failing (again). I think we are in the same place on the use of social media (and tools generally). I find the same with the Zoo profiler (thanks for the feedback by the way). People can either use well or misuse and then complain. Like drivers blaming the car when they career off the road at high speed…
Nice post Jye, some great points, particularly:
“Social media as a stand alone strategy, rarely does all that well (you need wider digital and other media support): try SEO, PPC” – Vice Versa, today SEO is becoming increasingly reliant on the reach of social media.
Here are some more I’ve learned along the way …
1. Assume your clients are crazy busy – running their businesses or doing their jobs. Asking them to learn something new will take lots of time and support.
2. The technical side of social media is finicky as hell – it’s far from set and forget – just look at how facebook has changed the like button. Set expectations accordingly and put a support agreement in place.
3. If a client doesn’t do something you suggest, you haven’t made it relevant enough for their business. Try a different approach if you think it’s really important.
4. Often you’ll discover that a client’s KPIs do not align all that well with what their customers perceive to be valuable. Here’s where proper analytics will help you make your argument.
5. Everyone gets social media – when they are the customer. Trick is to remember that when you are creating the experience – and trying to sell stuff.
6. Most of the stuff that actually makes a commercial difference requires gobs of hard unsexy work, testing, measurement, perseverance, attention to detail and tons of give a shit factor. This is incredibly difficult to budget.
Great additions Ian, I think number 4 is something that is so often overlooked but so important to remember when trying to see things from the client’s perspective. If you can’t make a campaign relevant to a client KPI’s then they’ll never understand the value of what you are proposing.
Jye
Couple of points. Thank you for making me think. Always good.
First off. The sarcasm. You mean social media is like the way you treat your friends. The relationships you build at work.
Two. What is Social media used for? After all social media will only work for the very few but just like Corporate Social Responsibility everyone has to do it because if you don’t then you are nothing.
Three. Does that mean there is a need to change the way Social Media being sold and then to identify how social media will work for the CSR way. Thus finding a new use for it and then leveraging the strong attributes to those campaigns that make sense..
Hey I am repeating what others say in a way. We all approach this from different frames and using those frames can only make us stronger
Keep up the good work
Nick
Ian, Nick – thanks so much for your insights. And I think you’re spot on Ian about the customer centricity of it all.
Nick: Definitely.
Great post. I especially agree with the notion of meaningful relationships and in a way perpetual relationships. Never expect to set up a site, group or fan page with a community and then after getting a good amount of members to never talk to them again. It’s not like just ticking a box. It takes time, effort and management. Conversation more often is key.
Enjoyed reading this, keep up the good work.
Yeh totally agree with Roxy. I particularly agree with Kimberlee’s point not to dismiss the power of the offline experience too. It certainly goes back to your point about social media as a ‘stand alone’ strategy – we do need other media support. We still like things to feel ‘real’.
Nice thought provoker you have here!
I really liked Tiphereth’s post about the need for brands to have a ‘human face’ I think it is important for any company to acknowledge any wrongdoing on their part. Failure to do so only alienates consumers.
As long as we know how this actually translates into business results, then I totally agree.
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