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We’re going to tell you what most marketers will NEVER tell you. We do that a lot because we believe in providing the honest truth, with integrity. Here are statements that I hear every single day from clients:
“I need Facebook.”
“I need Twitter.”
“I need a blog.”
You know what I say? No. You. Don’t.
Cheap & Easy
Not only do most companies still not understand what these mean to the expansion of their business, most have no idea how to harness them to increase branding, leads and sales. So why does this persist? It’s cheap and easy to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts. The thing is, most businesses don’t know what to do with them once they get them started.
High Abandonment Rates
To run a blog, Twitter or Facebook account means you have entered the world of generating new ideas and content creation. That’s right – content creation. After all, Nobody cares that you announced on your Twitter account that you now have a Facebook account. Think about that. Who cares? Do YOU care when someone else makes such a banal announcement? Of course not. People want to read fresh, relevant, interesting, educational, and entertaining content. That’s what the merger of social media and business is all about.
For business uses, social media is a relationship-building process tool, not a one-shot deal. Now paying someone to take care of these for you is going to be costly in most cases and the potential return on investment is going to be difficult to measure. There are high abandonment rates because creating compelling content takes time, effort, skill, and consistency which relatively few people have.
Should You Cancel Your Accounts?
Now get real. How much time do you have? Can you really spare your time? I doubt it. Are you creative enough to generate new ideas and keep up seemingly “forever?” Most importantly, do you have something to say? Really – think about. Do you have something to say that will be of interest to people on a consistent basis. And by “something to say” I don’t mean Tweets like “had lunch, have heartburn, damn McD’s,” because nobody cares. Rather, your readers are more likely to want to read “McD’s has a new website that allows them to do XYZ with clients. Here’s my analysis as to why it will work well for the company.”
Attention Business Owners!
Just because people are telling you that you need to be on Facebook, doesn’t mean anything. Facebook is useful as a social tool because people “play” on it all day and build relationships. Most small businesses don’t have time for that and that’s OK. There are much better ways to generate leads and increase sales for many businesses. Besides, the “worst that can happen” is that you look stupid, with that Tweet you sent out 4 months ago (that no one saw because you have 0 followers) that people see when they click on the link from your website that encourages people to “follow us on Twitter!” with no apparent reward for doing so.
I’m sorry for being somewhat blunt on this topic but enough is enough. Stop listening to people who just want your money (bad marketers) and friends who don’t know anything about your marketing strategy or the number of resources you have to maintain what they are suggesting you do.
There is no one size fits all to Internet marketing. There are a number of blog posts and articles giving reasons for using Twitter for business. There are books being written on the subject. I have yet to see any compelling evidence whatsoever that says every business needs this. Does every online business need SEO? Yes. Do they need pay per click (PPC)? Possibly. Do they need an email marketing campaign strategy? Probably. Do they need Twitter? Probably not.
Who is Your Target Market?
I go on and on about this all the time so forgive me if I sound like a broken record. Blanketing the world with “marketing” via Facebook and Twitter isn’t exactly the new way of thinking about ROI-based online marketing. (Trust me – I’m writing a book on the topic!). You need to reach out to where your target market clients are and go after them there. If you’re going to run a blog, you need to make sure that the people you’re writing it for are going to read it.
There Are Ways to Get a Social Media ROI
What should you do with your account? There are ways to make them look busy if you really want to go that route. I’m not going to list them right now, as that’s typically what I get paid to do and it’s not the goal here. In this article, I just want to get the message across so business owners can breathe a sign of relief and focus on running their businesses. Perhaps more in the future. For now, just consider my words of wisdom
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