The other week I analyzed the\u00a0Business Week social media article.\u00a0 It rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons, however\u00a0John Sviokla\u00a0who writes for Harvard Business Review\u00a0left a comment\u00a0that well-summarized my main motivation to dissect it:<\/p>\n
I have to agree with Adam and Nik. Business Week has a journalistic obligation to go beyond simply making a story structure that has \u201cissue\u201d and then \u201ccounterfact\u201d. The responsibility of the author is to make a fact-based assessment of the central tendency of social media in business. Given the fact that according to my estimates there is about $1 Trillion dollars spent in the US on generating demand through promotions, advertising, sales forces, and the like, and given the fact that word of mouth is such a vital force in customer choice \u2014 there is no question that social media is a part of the digital marketing mix that is here to stay.<\/em><\/p>\n
I agree with Jeff too that there is a surfeit of bad reporting out there \u2014 it\u2019s just too bad that a magazine with Business in its name is so naive about how good business should operate!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I feel that as a marketing industry blogger, something I can do in 2010 is continue to dissect how trade publications cover digital marketing.\u00a0 Industry media by themselves have more influence than we do.\u00a0 But\u00a0in aggregate\u00a0we win out.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0practitioners\u00a0who\u00a0are\u00a0actually\u00a0creating\u00a0strategies\u00a0we have a grasp not just from an analytical viewpoint, but from working hands-on with the web we have one foot firmly in reality.\u00a0 Therefore, we can elevate the global conversation by making industry media and even other bloggers more cognizant and accountable for their content.\u00a0 If we\u2019re successful in doing so, we\u2019ll advance things from both the micro and macro levels.<\/p>\n
With the introduction out of the way, let\u2019s move on and continue to dissect digital marketing content in industry media:<\/p>\n
Brett Waters at Marketing Mag\u00a0writes a piece\u00a0\u201cWhen all that Twitters isn\u2019t gold.\u201d\u00a0 Of note, I could not locate the author on Twitter.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go through it:<\/p>\n
Marketers are increasingly turning to social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in an attempt to promote their products or services.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By starting digital marketing articles writing about tools, you reinforce the wrong thing up front.\u00a0 Want better digital strategy?\u00a0\u00a0Ban these words\u00a0(aka tools\/tactics).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s analogous to writing a story on telemarketing communication strategy and leading with:\u00a0 many companies are turning to VOIP, cell phones and services like Skype.\u00a0 Then in the body discussing what to say on the phone.\u00a0 It\u2019s a total disconnect between\u00a0lede\u00a0and content.<\/p>\n
Next, the author goes into an example of the \u201cnegatives\u201d of\u00a0social media\u00a0the Internet:<\/p>\n
What many fail to consider however, is that for every positive story there are also negatives. Just look at the highs and lows of some recent movie releases. Revenues for the Sacha Baron Cohen film,\u00a0Bruno<\/em>\u00a0were significantly impacted by critical Twitter reviews posted by movie goers during the film\u2019s opening weekend.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This isn\u2019t a \u201cnegative of social media,\u201d it is a reality of a connected society.\u00a0 Consumers\u00a0are going to\u00a0have been sharing their opinions on the web for well over a decade.\u00a0 Additionally, criticism on the web is channel agnostic and not silo\u2019d to any one network if it achieves any degree of critical mass.<\/p>\n
We can easily tell each other if a product sucks.\u00a0 So if you make mediocre products \u2013 entertainment or otherwise \u2013 be certain those who are passionate about that type of product are going to speak out against it.\u00a0 Not just in Twitter, as the author suggests, but across the web.\u00a0 This shouldn\u2019t be a revelation to any business at this point.<\/p>\n
Next the author discusses how to combat negative buzz:<\/p>\n
By analysing and understanding the different reasons why consumers take the action they do, it becomes possible to plan a social network communication strategy for individuals that considers tone and sentiment and then apply the appropriate action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Consumers don\u2019t want to see a \u201csocial network communication strategy\u201d with a response that \u201cconsiders tone and sentiment\u201d \u2013 they want to see corrective action to whatever their point was.\u00a0 Listening to how people say things is far less important than what they are actually telling you.<\/p>\n
Companies can win through their actions, not through trying to spin the issue with a communications strategy.\u00a0 You\u2019re talking directly to other humans, applying traditional PR tenets designed for traditional media is wrong.\u00a0 Any momentary victory through communication designed to appease is meaningless.\u00a0 The resentment stirred up originally will last longer than any response through words:\u00a0 if someone took the time to share their negative thoughts about your product in a public forum, it cut deep.\u00a0 Don\u2019t\u00a0say\u00a0<\/em>you\u2019re taking action,\u00a0show<\/em>\u00a0what action was taken.\u00a0 Demonstrate, don\u2019t explain.<\/p>\n
Decide where responsibility for social media should sit. Is it a marketing owned activity or would it be best run as a blog by a technical development guru?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Since when does a blog need to be run by a \u201ctechnical development guru?\u201d\u00a0 Despite what\u00a0anyone<\/em>\u00a0tells you \u2013 social communications tools are simple to use and a snap to setup.\u00a0 That\u2019s the reason why there are\u00a0133 million+ blogs\u00a0indexed by Technorati.\u00a0 If you\u2019re unsure how to get something started, sure \u2013 have someone else come in and do the initial setup \u2013 but to have it run by a technical person day-to-day shows a lack of understanding and perpetuates something that is no longer true, if it ever was.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not about technology, it\u2019s about ideas.<\/p>\n
When ready, create your group on Facebook or a site on Twitter and begin posting. Social media is largely about personality, so keep it interesting and let some character show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Facebook and Twitter in particular seem to have an army of supporters in the marketing industry, as without fail they are mentioned as the de facto platforms usually without much rationale.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if cable TV was just invented and \u201cexperts\u201d started saying:\u00a0 \u201cWhen ready, create your ad for Comedy Central or ESPN and begin running your shoots.\u201d\u00a0 This is skipping right to specific tactics without any logic in doing so.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the piece, the author suggested your social media responsibility could be best run by your technology development guru.\u00a0 Now he says to keep it interesting and let some character show?\u00a0 These two things seem in opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other week I analyzed the\u00a0Business Week social media article.\u00a0 It rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons, however\u00a0John … <\/p>\n