Let me be perfectly honest, I don’t think the social media is worth much as a marketing tool. I define social media as networks whose primary goal is keep you on their platform, in order to show you paid, targeted adverts. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and the others.
Why do I exclude YouTube and LinkedIn? Because their strategy of placing adverts in front of their readers is closer to well-known advertising channels like magazines and newspapers.
Being anti social media makes me something of a pariah in the marketing world, where so many people and companies are trying to make a living from convincing companies that it’s critical. Why am I out of step with the rest of my industry? Well… experience. I have found that it quite simply doesn’t work.
Myth #1 – it’s just me
Every client I speak to, tells me that social media is working for their competitors. How do they know this? They are told by social media companies selling social media services to people doing badly on social media.
Here’s the truth.
Social media isn’t increasing SALES for my clients in South Africa, Mozambique, Indonesia, the UK, Australia or Canada, so it isn’t about geography.
It doesn’t work for my engineering, mining and construction clients. No big surprise. Those guys don’t communicate when you put them in a room together liberally oiled with a few beers. So they certainly aren’t going to sign up on TikTok.
But it ALSO doesn’t create leads for my clients with an ultra-feminine demographic (you don’t get more Facebook-friendly than a beauty spa, a bridal boutique and a restaurant!)
My personal advice: track your sales and leads, not just your likes and follows. Is it working for your real world business, or are you providing free entertainment for the masses with your cool memes.
Myth #2 – social media CAN’T ever work for me
Facebook works amazingly well for my client Harley Owners Group (HOG Africa). What’s up with that?
- Harley Owners may be “macho” but they are inherently social.
- The H.O.G. Facebook page is about upcoming rallies, socials, training and fun events. No selling.
- I post daily, mostly sharing members positive comments about rallies, socials, rides and riding, or congratulating people on milestones or achievements. It’s a fun, positive place to be.
- The Ladies of Harley are a powerful sub-group, and they are VERY chatty and supportive. almost all shares on my posts are ladies and not the gents.
- The gents are the strong silent type. They do read (I can see that on my stats) but never engage unless its a joke.
My personal advice: try different accounts, after all it’s free marketing.
Myth #3 – social media is free marketing
Add up the hours you spend writing, finding photos, posting and moderating. Multiply that by your hourly rate. Not free.
What’s more dangerous, is that social media isn’t a marketing platform you CAN own and control.
Before the pandemic, I set and ran the account for Harley Africa and the Middle East for over 5 years. During that time, Facebook changed it’s rules TWICE in a fundamental way. The group had to be restarted each time. Luckily HOG is a real-world organization, so we could regain our followers. But if it had been an online group, it would not have survived.
Whether the risk comes from hackers, disgruntled customers, or is simply a backlash against something you post, negative social media content can destroy trust in your brand in minutes. Followers don’t tolerate mistakes and outrage spreads fast. The more you post, and the more famous you are, the more you are going to be targeted by people trying to boost their own profile by taking you down.
People are fickle, and entire social media channels can fall out of favour. When they go down, you lose years of hard work. If it is your core marketing channel, you might find it impossible to recreate yourself.
My personal advice: create and post on multiple channels to mitigate their risk. And have a website to be the central hub for your newsletters, social media and permanent sales tools.
Myth #4 – Social Media is about making friends
The assumption is that friends and followers engage and become customers. The more popular you are, the more you will sell.
Confession: I have a really popular cat on Twitter. I’ve learned a lot about how social media works from him. But top #CatsofTwitter like my close friend @Scruffkit has been unable to turn his massive (40k) following into sales. And Scruffkit’s Mom makes great candles and jewellery.
Tweeting and sharing draws attention to the best information to be found on the internet about a topic that you are interested in – whether it’s cats, climate change, entrepreneurship or dealing with depression. When you follow someone, you’re simply saying “I find what you have to say interesting enough that I want to be able to keep tabs on it easily.”
My personal experience: social media is what you make it. A marketing tool, a branding tool, a social tool, a source of useful content on a specific topic. If you find after a few months that social media is driving business to your website (easy to check with analytics), keep going – you’re a winner!
Myth #5 – The more followers you have, the better
There are already applications coming out to “increase your followers”. Sometimes you pay a few dollars per 500 followers. Sometimes you agree to follow everyone in the system (and they agree to follow you). The result is a figure for “followers” almost identical to the figure for “followed”.
But you have to learn to not get too excited when you get a boom of followers. I wrote an article on “Network Marketing” and I picked 60 followers in that business. A few then went on to READ the article, and realised that it was extremely critical. And promptly unfollowed. So don’t be upset when you get a “bust” of followers either.
My personal verdict: social media is a very good way to get instant feedback. It’s not a competition – concentrate on being interesting in your niche field.
