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I agree with all of his 6 points of what social media is. I take exception to a (2), (5) and (6) (to some extent)of what it isn’t.
(2) Social Media isn’t the end all solution for every business. Tom’s Pizza, your local doctor, the garage that fixes your car, can all eliminate advertising with effective use of social media. Localized social media is the “great uncharted territory” for now, but inroads are being made. Tom’s Pizza should have a Ning site and use a computer generated coupon to enroll every customer. Coupon rewards for greatest pizza party video and greatest pizza pic could easily generate some friendly competitiveness and create opportunities for his customers to get to know one another – after all, they live near each other. Tom could Twitter to his 100 or 200 customers, weekly specials or special events. Tom could do MySpace and get plugged in to the hundreds on MySpace users near him. Who knows, Tom might even be witty and find an appreciative audience who never realized his humor in the quick in and out at the store.
I can think of no entity that cannot measurably benefit from engaging in Social Media. There is a venue for every purpose. Selling multi-million dollar mansions? www.asmallworld.net or Affluence.org. Social Media IS the end all for ALL businesses; they just need someone to direct them.
Social Media IS a replacement for SEO. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but what use will search engines serve if everything we want or need is already connected to us in our social networks? Google knows this and they are heavily investing in alternative revenue streams including several social media properties. (not that adwords ever really benefited anyone, much, other than google)
Social Media IS about ROI. Nothing can produce greater ROI than effective use of Social Media.
Finally, I’d like to say I’m surprised that Mike called Perry’s Video ‘fantastic”. While his 7 points are valid, they are hardly secrets, and the video itself is less than compelling. I was ready to click off at 1:39 but kept on looking for “fantastic”. I want to also point out that everyone does want to buy. We all want to, and we all do buy, very regularly. What better place to get purchasing advice than from our trusted friends in our social networking spaces. Perry is right, one should not “sell” in social media. If you follow the rules of social media outlined by Mike and Perry, you will have plenty of buyers, without ever trying to sell.
Thanks guys, for keeping the convo going
You created some work for me here. Here is my take on how I see things in the current social media climate, in reply to some of your points.
"Tom's Pizza, your local doctor, the garage that fixes your car, can all eliminate advertising with effective use of social media. Localized social media is the "great uncharted territory" for now, but inroads are being made. Tom's Pizza should have a Ning site and use a computer generated coupon to enroll every customer"
I agree, with direction these businesses could benefit from social media. For the local markets I do not feel social media is the end all solution. It's nice to think everyone is using social media, but the facts are everyone is not. My local doctor lets say only deals with the elderly. The first place most of these people look is in the yellow pages. The ones who can use a pc are more likely to use search for finding local businesses. We are not at the point where everyone is using a social networking site or Twitter for recommendations and referrals. I believe we will get to that point, but it's going to be a very long time, maybe 5-10 years down the road.
Most small businesses I speak to including Tom's pizzeria, are not even past the first step of establishing a website. Yea this day in the age, they are still asking why do I need one. The word Twitter to them is a foreign language. I agree they need to be educated about the benefits of social media, but most simply will not invest the time or money to get on that path, at least not yet. The bigger corporations is a different story, they are the ones are starting to "get it", no argument there. Papa Johns is a good example, where you can order your food online. Most recently there was a burrito fast food chain that created an iPhone application that allowed you place orders via your phone. Inroads are being made, and it's the bigger corporations who are doing it.
"Social Media IS about ROI"
You will notice I put in bold to an extent it is.
How do you effectively measure or put a price tags on conversations? The CPC, CPM and old school metrics are thrown out the door when it comes to social media.
Company A spends $50,000 on a social media campaign. They want to see a return on investment measured in dollars. The ROI or VOI comes in the form of, buzz, blog mentions, twitter mentions, search engine back-links. Was brand awareness created, customer loyalty and so forth.
I did not realize you were so close to my neck of the woods. I would be glad to meet up one day and talk shop. I look forward to it. Drop me an email or DM anytime. We could carry on this debate in person :-)
I look forward to getting together. Tom's Pizza and your local Doc just need a little direction. A Ning site is probably the best ice breaker and most often there is someone young enough on staff to manage it until the boss sees the power. And twitter and NING are free, so "in the budget". Tom sees PapaJohns is selling online, so he knows about it.
If your Doc is the same age as his clients, it probably does not make sense to get into social media, but if he is young enough to have clients joining his practice for ten or twenty years, he better get on it! :)
I believe all Social Media efforts can be tracked to increased sales. You have x # of $ annual sales with x % of sales growth. You add social Media and both # of $ annual sales and sales growth increase. I have done some experiments with the computer school I consult for and find it is fascinating how some businesses can expect to move annual growth from 10% a year to 100% a year, with social media marketing. I did a workup for a fictional cell phone accessories store that projects 1000% percent annual growth.
My latest client is a company I co-founded and it is going to be a flagship case scenario of viral propagation and WOM multiplication.
Victor
You have six really solid points about what social media is, and I'm curious where you fall on the sponsored posts / blogger relations conversation. Do you think companies that give bloggers free product to "try and share with their friends" are participating in social media? Is there room for "sponsored posts" and product giveaways as part of a social media strategy?
I think companies that give bloggers free products to "try and share with their friends" are participating in social media to some extent. First and foremost there must be full disclosure and transparency displayed, and the motives must be clear from the start. When the blogger does not display any of this is when I have a problem with it. If the product is something that is useful and resourceful, by all means let people play with it and share their thoughts on it. The company must expect an honest writeup of the product, good, bad or somewhere in the middle. The pay for play model I'm personally against. I think the blogger looses credibility by doing this. I'm not a fan of this, but it has tremendous value for the companies involved, as it could and does generate a huge amount of buzz for the product.
Sponsored posts should be written by someone from the actual company, if they are going to be posted on a blog other than their own. That's my take on it. I also think there is value in product giveaways, just as long as it's done in an honest way.
That's awesome. I just read your post on it as well. He hits on a lot of solid points. Most are common sense, but it basically describes what social media is to the tee.
Mike
Dianne Roberson Hendrix
www.artworldplus.com
We always appreciate the linkage back. Thank you.
Mike
Thanks for the comment. It's funny because on every social media related post I have been publishing lately, I find myself repeating this line constantly, "The tools are only facilitators of the message".
It's the tools that add the social component. Going beyond that, I agree social media is not media.
Thanks,
Mike
I could certainly see applications for my local pizza joint and snowball stand for that matter. Why couldn't the local pizza guy be on Twitter and I could tweet him "what's the wait look like tonight" or "got any tables" before I go in only to find out i (and my kids) have to wait 20 min for a table. He could even "put my name on the list" or tweet me 10 min before a table will be ready. That kind of thing. Not only would I LOVE that service but I'd surely tell others about it. Heck, I know parents that would get on Twitter and go that pizza joint JUST for that service.
Agree, large scale "listening" type SM is overkill. But a tactical use, well done, think it could work. My .02.
@TomMartin