Commune | Internet Marketing Optimization

A skeptic’s guide to marketing with “social media” feeds

Posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 1:03 PM by Simon Smith  |  Comments (0)

People often introduce me as a “social media expert” simply because I work in internet marketing. My response? Actually, I’m a social media skeptic.

There are many reasons. One is that I find the term “social media” poorly defined; it’s become a catch-all for anything digital, personal and interconnected, yet sending an email to a group of friends or contributing to a forum discussion rarely qualifies.  (And if you think the definition is clear, try reading the Wikipedia entry on social media.)

Another challenge with what usually qualifies as social media is unrealistic expectations. When we parse web analytics data, for example, we often find that Facebook and Twitter raise awareness but rarely send a high ratio of qualified traffic—people most likely to buy.

All of this said, while I’m a skeptic, I’m not a cynic. I believe there’s value to tools like Facebook and Twitter. So I was happy to see a recent post by Jakob Nielsen on distributing content through social networks and feeds. Here are some of the top tips for business users:

1. Post moderately. One of the biggest frustrations that users report with following businesses through so-called social media tools is excessive posting.
2. Use the right tone (most often, a casual one). Generally, users prefer a casual and personal tone. But not always. For example, people want items in RSS feeds to be more straightforward, and for some organizations, such as news outlets, people want a more professional tone.
3. Cater to greed and exclusivity. Your friends and followers will typically like getting a deal, as well as being the first to know. It’s a reward for following your feed. But beware of aggressive selling; it’s an overt reminder that you’re trying to move product rather than maintain a relationship.
4. Prompt people to follow you. Because they won’t do it of their own volition, even if they know your brand. For example, email existing customers and prompt them to follow or friend you—and make sure your website links to your various accounts.
5. Post substantive, timely and relevant messages. They get rated highest by users. Add value, make the value relevant to your business, and give followers the scoop rather than an afterthought.

A few other likely obvious tips to consider: pick a good username, use a good logo, and write for the medium (rather than shovel from other sources).

And now back to my skeptical perspective, here’s one point worth printing and sticking on your monitor: Feeds (such as RSS and Twitter) are less powerful than email marketing for customer relationships. Why? Because users have to manually delete an email to remove it from their inbox (if they requested it and it’s not spam). Feeds, however, just keep coming, and few people read beyond their first feed screen. So if they missed a post when it first went up, they’ll likely never see it.

So definitely experiment with new tools, social or otherwise. But don’t give up on the classics so quickly.

Tags: rss, social media, usability