Comments on: Social Media Is Important to Everyone – Not!

By: SM Marketing | Are You or Your Business Doing Twitter Marketing?

SM Marketing | Are You or Your Business Doing Twitter Marketing? — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:30:09 +0000

[...] Social Media Is Important to Everyone – Not! (marketingpilgrim.com) [...]

By: Social Media Is Important to Everyone - Not! | Digital Asset Management

Social Media Is Important to Everyone - Not! | Digital Asset Management — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:37:23 +0000

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By: bathroom bath

bathroom bath — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:21:17 +0000

This is good post! I think social media marketing nowadays is good option for doing effectively online marketing. But the thing is that its not like all that. Social media is not for everyon but today it has big value who know their use. You should know where your customer is whether on facebook or on twitter and thats the perfect use of social media for good online marketing.

By: sarah

sarah — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:51:42 +0000

i agree with bob williams down below…i'd like to wager this author is your typical 'old school' type marketer. nothing wrong with that – except today's world is an online world. if you know what you're doing with social media – i.e., getting involved in the CONVERSATION – then can you bring some business benefit? surely. whether it's through a customer service/reviews focus or building brand awareness, social media can HELP with marketing. it's certainly not the be-all-end-all, but if you think you have something to say about your business, then say it in the medium the world is using.

By: Jacob Stoops

Jacob Stoops — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:09:41 +0000

Now that I really think about it, you're right…social media does cost valuable time and I am always wondering if it is really worth it or not? Often times, I find that it's not.

By: The Web List

The Web List — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:14:44 +0000

Excellent post! I absolutely can not live without social media. Social media marketing is one of the most effective way of online marketing.

By: Social Media Doesn’t Drive Purchases? | webmarketingexperts.com.au

Social Media Doesn’t Drive Purchases? | webmarketingexperts.com.au — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:21:28 +0000

[...] panning social media and its marketing effectiveness is the hip thing to do these days. But even surveys which seem as conclusive as this one don’t necessarily [...]

By: click_optimize

click_optimize — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:20:19 +0000

All valid points. I recently spoke to a client who said a competitor had recommended that they setup 60 different profiles on different social media sites. Yikes. Most people seem to be skipping the research phase with regard to choosing profiles and just activating the most hyped ones out there en masse. Too bad. A focused approach can yield some nice results when you are realistic from the inception with regard to goals, strategy and tactics.

Social media isn't a “cure-all” but it can help solve certain issues with regard to brand and customer experience. There have been plenty of examples of very smart people struggling to find their stride in social media. As is true throughout life, things that are hard often have large rewards to those who figure them out. Crafty folks will find a way to leverage these tools while not over-committing resources. Isn't that true of all areas of marketing though?

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:28:46 +0000

“…you must be where your target audience is”

That's so true and, sometimes, that customer isn't interested in ANY social networks. Whenever someone asks me for a recommendation on which social media to “use” I typically ask them what their goals are and who are they trying to reach. Being active in a social network because others are, is the wrong answer.

By: iGoMogul

iGoMogul — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:03:23 +0000

Thank you for sharing that post, Frank. The author makes some good points, and as a small business it gives us some things to consider as we plan our social media strategy going forward. So far we have emphasized customer service and interaction over marketing, and it has been successful in that regard. As a web development company it would not make sense for us to ignore social media, but it stands to reason that some firms will find it more beneficial than others.

Greg @ iGoMogul

By: EH

EH — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:19:59 +0000

This was a great post. I agree, social media is not for everyone. But it can be a great asset to those who use it wisely. As with any form of media, in order for social media to be a success, you must be where your target audience is. If your audience is on Facebook, concentrate your attentions there. Likewise, if they are on twitter go that route. The key though is knowing your customer.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:12:03 +0000

Very interesting post, Frank.

I agree that I think there's a lot of hype around social media and in particular twitter. It's the trendy thing to do.

Just from my own observation, I've noticed that social media tools may not be as influential as some might think. For example, I observed a blog contest where one of the contestants had well over 20K twitter followers. This contestant periodically asked his/her followers to vote for them. He/she wasn't overly annoying with the requests and voting literally took a just few seconds. This contestant couldn't even muster up 900 votes.

That situation leads me to wonder a few things:
- are people using social media tools to talk and not listen?
- is there too much noise in social media?
- are people just selectively tuning out certain folks they follow?
- if you aim is to pile up followers and the number of people you follow, can your participation in social media really be effective?

By: Bob Williams

Bob Williams — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:00:04 +0000

What the authors are missing is that social media is not an end-all solution for reaching customers. Social media is a set of tools available to use in the larger context of your sales, marketing, and customer service strategies. You can choose to use the tools or not based on your situation and strategy.

By: Brennan

Brennan — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:40:48 +0000

I think social media marketing is still trying to find it definitive voice and an industry standard on figuring out ROI. There have been many brands recently who have really had a lot of success from social media but then you also look at things such as the Domino's Youtube ordeal and it makes you think that companies should have influence on those websites to help calm the storm when things such as this happen. I am in the industry of online reputation management which now seems to be growing faster than social media marketing and it really makes more sense to some companies. I would agree with the writer in that you do not have to be on every social network because if you are selling to a certain market and they do not frequent the site then you are wasting a lot of time.

By: Social Media Expert

Social Media Expert — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:28:35 +0000

I absolutely love this post and the original author's post! Small business, in particular, need to pay special attention to the opportunity costs of chasing all the hype involved in social media and as with everything they do in marketing — align everything with their business objectives and their audience.

Maria Reyes-McDavis