Too many business people are entering the social marketing sphere with false assumptions. They think it is FREE. They think it is EASY. They think it WORKS.
Is social marketing FREE?
Social marketing carries a significant price tag if it is to be done right – with a strategy, branding, consistency and continuity. Yes, anyone can open a Twitter account for free. Facebook costs you nothing. But time does cost money. Tools for managing the accounts may cost money. And if you try to do it as a side activity “when you have some free time”, it is likely to become nothing more than a waste of your time.
Remember, it is not magic. And the world is not waiting for your next clever Tweet.
Is social marketing EASY?
It is easy to open accounts on the various major social marketing networks. And getting started is not hard. But again, you can play around, post things, learn to use the tools available and suddenly find you have wasted many hours of your valuable time. The fact that there is NO barrier to entry actually makes your job harder. Anyone and everyone can and is using Twitter and Facebook these days. That is because it is easy. So there is a ton of noise out there and people are getting more and more choosy about who they want to take the time to listen to. It is easy to get 1 follower. It’s even easy to get several hundred. But most of them will never read your Tweets.
But building something with value, that can capture the ever shrinking availability of mindshare, is anything but easy. Consider that most articles about how wonderful Twitter has been for marketers usually repeat the same few examples. Think about if and how you use these networks. Who do you follow on Twitter? Of those that you follow, how many do you actually read? How many seem to provide something of value? It takes effort and planning to deliver something that is worth anyone’s attention these days.
Does social marketing work?
Depends who you ask. If a business thinks it is free and easy, than it is probably not going to work for him because he expects too much for too little. If a business is willing to invest time to develop a strategy and to test out different tactics and dedicate the time needed. it is certainly possible that social networks can contribute to a business’s bottom line. But it takes real commitment and requires good online marketing strategy and planning.
“FREE” can be very deceiving in the Internet era.
