I really enjoy Marketing. It is a mixture of Art and Science. I also enjoy speaking with Marketing professionals about creative and lasting ways they engage with customers. But recently I am concerned on what I am seeing.
Frequently I am hearing from marketing professionals (way too often) that they have to become active in Twitter and Facebook. Disclosure: I like and use both twitter and facebook, and was proud member of the Dell team that were early pioneers in both of these online tools to engage with a large audience. But somewhere, somehow, Twitter and Facebook are being positioned as must have marketing activities for brands across all industries. Why? Some answers: “Because our competition is on Facebook and has a Twitter handle. Or I read Dell made $2 Million on Twitter, therefore my company needs to have a presence.” Yikes, not the best criteria for allotting your marketing resources. This is a Ready, Fire, Aim answer.
This euphoria reminds me of the Drive for Viral in 2005. Viral was the “new way” to do marketing, CMOs gave the order: “Go get a viral campaign”. And off marketing teams went to agencies and required a viral campaign. What got overlooked is viral is an outcome of good content, that should be the objective anytime you publish content – make the content shareable and memorable. Somehow viral became the holy grail for marketing. Viral was nothing new, just a misunderstood objective.
Facebook and Twitter might be suffering from the viral syndrome – shiny objectives that are not fully understood, and marketing professionals blindly chase the shiny objective. Social media and sites like Facebook are never a substitute for great products and great service. Job One for Marketing -listening and delivering products and services that woo customers. Once you do that Twitter and Facebook, plus a hundreds of other online activities can be the virtual water coolers where your brand, your products and services are discussed. Your role as a brand is Listen and Engage with customers on the web. What you should be planning is not just what will your Facebook fan page will look like, but how are you going to have a sustaining, value added presence.
I am looking and asking for examples of where a brand adds value by participating in Facebook. If you have any send them my way. I am most interested in Facebook fan pages delivering incremental revenue to a brand and how it is measured.