Why Social Marketing Doesn’t Work

I agree with his statement that SM should start with an experiment, many of them really. Developing strategies that require viral cascades is a recipe for failure.

social media is engagement in my view. many small engagements are like small fires. It is unclear which one will catch. Which message will resonate with our audience. However, if it does, then investing further energy, getting the fire to shift and turn into something larger is possible.

He is right that most agencies can not do this. Nor do clients see much value in small multiple experiments across mediums (sites, technologies, platforms). Some see this as a risk. few see it as an opportunity. The difficulty is shifting resources and being able to kill off projects that have little current value. Most projects in large agencies are priced and resources allocated (most outsourced)long before the project beings; which means agility is lost while risk is managed.

This is actually the benefit of a startup. Being able to track real time metrics, actually creating value and engaging in that creation with their users/buyers/clients shifting resources as needed.

I think the Ted talk about the Why, How, What circles explains very clearly why some campaigns are successful and why most fail. If you are starting at What, you will fail most of the time. If you start from the Why of your product, community, the philosophy and thoughts and beliefs behind it, there is a chance that it will be far more appealing.

That some believe Social Marketing does work and does not work only clarifies that our strategies are poor. Not all TV commercials are culture shaping, nor do all magazine ads shape society, but to assume that they have no impact is a large mistake.

Social marketing works. Just not the way you think.

In my experience, the first step is to gain followers or fans. The best way to do this is through targeted advertising. While it is possible to build a follower base without advertising, it is harder. Advertising gives the advantage of speed and targeting.

The second step is to keep providing people with good content, while at the same time, promoting your product. As you provide content, you can measure the number of comments and get a feel for peoples' thoughts. This becomes easy after a while because you become accustomed to your audience and know what they like.

Does this mean that you are going to be able to sell your product? It really depends on your product and the market, just like with anything else.

I would question the product-market fit before I questioned the value in social marketing.

That is why, for example, some hotels are always crowded with middle-class tourist while same type hotel next corner is empty and selling rooms to whores.

So, don't advertise crappy brand or service on FB - develop your brand or service first, and then customers will promote you on FB themselves.

37Signals doesn't use their blog for marketing they use it for PR and education. This attracts an audience, and once in a while they'll visit SVN on a day they're talking about Highrise and once in a while they'll go see what 37Signals actually does. Even when they launch software like the iPad app it's put in a PR context (we can make a paint prog with ONE color and get lots of sales, you can too!)

If you want to post press releases on your Twitter you will fail, if you want to call out Salesforce as a silly business because of their margins then you will get readers in droves.

If you want to use social media for marketing, buy some ads.