Social Media When It Makes Good Business Sense

Are you as fascinated about this obsession by marketers with all things social / mobile / twittered / facebooked as I am? Absolutely everyone is linking, blogging, friending, and clamoring to do something with advanced web applications, widgets, sites and extensions. In some ways it's a marketer's treasure chest; so many ways to reach-out and touch a customer!

But it's also very confusing, frustrating and time consuming. As Scott Adams' Dilbert humorously pointed out recently:

Dilbert ©2010, United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Linked with permission.

It made me laugh, and it made me think. Just what are we trying to accomplish in our new media exploits?

If we remember that new media (and by that I mean anything that is electronic, web, mobile, broadband, and not-yet-invented) is merely a delivery channel, then it begins to put things more into perspective.

Indeed, these new digital options allow for greater segmentation, interaction, involvement, geo-targeting and exposure, however the smart marketer must have a clear understanding of their business, customer, demographics and habits. Not all media channels are right for every business or product. Why? Because either the digital outreach media is simply overkill for the situation, or too expensive and time consuming to create, update and maintain.

I heard a humorous quote on one of the late-night talk shows last week. They said, "Why would I want to become a "friend" of CNN? If I want to get the news I'll simply go to CNN!" Now, he's probably missing the bigger picture of notification and engagement, but he has a point. As I noted in an earlier column, if you don't have a "friending strategy" of what you're going to do with that person once they have friended with you, what's the point?

Again, as with ANY media, it requires the proper insight into the marketplace, customer, product and available channels in order to make a cost-efficient plan for marketing. If you're jumping-in just because you want to be perceived as an early-adopter, and you can afford the time and effort necessary to deploy a social strategy then go for it.

However there are so many companies and organizations I talk with that tell me they simply don't see the kind of return-on-investment they were expecting, and in fact, cost them more in time, labor and budget than what they invested. Mike Jacobs, in a recent opinion column in BtoB Magazine noted, "... yet for many businesses, its (Twitter's) value remains a mystery - particularly when trying to assess a tangible return on the investment required to maintain a Twitter presence."

Social media success requires knowledge (not just putting up tweets that say "I'm at a great industry conference..." or random videos on YouTube), commitment (fresh, engaging, value-added content tailored to the user's interests), and persistence (measuring your success and making adjustments as necessary).

Then again, just keeping your regular marketing efforts on-track, and your web site's content up-to-date may be all you and your staff can handle.

So, look at all of these new methods as potentially valuable tools in your kit, but use them only when they make sense for your business, your budget and your audience. Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time for little (if any) measurable return.

© 2010 Bob Chernet - View all of Bob's articles at: Bob Chernet's Marketing Best Practices . Reproduction of Bob Chernet's Marketing Insights in any manner is unlawful, without the written permission of the author.