I knew it was coming and it's probably one of the top reasons why social media marketing programs fail. According to eMarketer this morning "Resources Are Now a Big Issue for Social Media Marketers". As I have said before social media is not just a Facebook page, it is a way of thinking about how to have an engaging conversation with your audience at a time when brands are media.
According to eMarketer: Social media was once seen by some marketers as a quick and easy way to reach consumers at their newest channel of choice. Advertising on the sites was relatively cheap, and marketing on the sites by creating a brand page or profile was free-it only cost internal time and resources. But those resources can prove to be substantial, as many marketing professionals seem to have learned.
Indeed ! It's hard to keep the conversation going isn't it ? Social media requires some basic building blocks that include:
- the ability to provide value in your social media conversation to users across the board. Remember the value is based on what your users consider valuable not what marketers consider valuable.
- the ability to start a conversation and then stay out of it as people become your brand ambassadors.
- someone who is knowledgeable on how to leverage social media to meet business and brand objectives.
- resources to monitor your social media strategy 24/7 if you want to provide a high level of service and let your customers know that you care.
The worst thing for a consumers is asking for help via social media and not getting an answer for days (hello GE !). So what do marketers need to do ?
(1) Think of your social media strategy and develop a resource allocation plan to support it.
(2) Develop an editorial calendar for your social media strategy (brands are media today).
(3) Ensure you have people who understand how to represent your brand to consumers and customers.
(4) Develop a closed loop system to review insights, complaints and comments on your brand or competitors products. Make sure that they are actionable and have someone recommend changes rather than just sent out data.
In talking to an executive recruiter last week I was interested to here his comments on people who are being placed in social media positions within companies. "What I am finding is that a lot of the younger people know social media and the Web but they lack the business savvy to integrate within the organization to make things happen. They get frustrated and leave and more and more senior marketing people want people who have a great marketing background and who know how to market via social media and the Web".
Resources indeed. If you're going to implement social media you need to have the resources to support it. But isn't that true for any marketing program?