For all the time people spend on social media - the most recent report from Nielsen indicates Americans spend over 53 billion minutes per month on Facebook alone, it is not nor will it ever not be the answer to what ails your marketing campaigns.
The numbers from the aforementioned Nielsen Report are staggering. In addition to the over 53 billion minutes per month Americans spend on Facebook...
- Social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans' time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the Internet
- Social media has grown rapidly - today nearly 4 in 5 active Internet users visit social networks and blogs
- Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website
- Close to 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone
- Social networking apps are the third most-used among U.S. smartphone owners
There are more very-telling numbers in the report and I urge you to read it in its entirety. But not right now... I want you to finish reading this first.
Back in early August I wrote a post titled It's Not The Brand, It's The Product Stupid. In that post I referenced an article that appeared in the Washington Post titled "Businesses find they can't grow without branding." The writer of the article was making the case for branding and/or rebranding as a means to generate new business. My take however was that while the brand is very important, it's the product, the service, the employees and so on that keeps people coming back... AKA be loyal to your company and yes, your brand.
The reason I bring all this up is because I want to make an analogy to social media. In my post It's Not The Brand, It's The Product Stupid I wrote...
A brand or rebrand opens the door.
A quality, well made, well delivered product, service, etc. keeps the door open and revolving.
Now to paraphrase myself (is that even legal by the way?)...
Social media - as part of an overall integrated marketing campaign opens the door.
A quality, well made, well delivered website AND product, knowledge, and expertise keeps the door open and revolving.
Stay with me here...
Every company knows they need a social media presence, right? Whether it's to build brand awareness via new followers, likes, etc., or out and out sell, the bottom line is always the bottom line, right?
So let's say Company X sets up a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a blog. For the sake of argument let's say Company X manufacturers potholders. All kinds of potholders in all styles, colors, textures, etc. Their social media accounts gets lots of followers, likes; their blog gets lots of hits and so on. But what's this? Their still not selling more potholders... what gives?
Let's take a look at their other marketing/advertising strategies. Hey they look pretty good... nice print ads, clever TV spots, engaging radio and so on...
Hmmm, how about their website? How does that look? Ugh. It's the most-templated, God-awful, un-user friendly site you ever saw.
But ok, we can fix that...
How about their product? I'll take one home and try it out for myself. Three hours later after coming home from the emergency room with 3rd degree burns on my hand, I'm starting to see the problem.
And I think you can see where I'm going here...
Social media - as part of an overall integrated marketing campaign opens the door.
A quality, well made, well delivered website AND product, knowledge, and expertise keeps the door open and revolving.
So to all those companies, businesses and marketers out there who think social media will cure all that ails you... I'm afraid you're in for a rude awakening. It can surely help... in a big way. But if your product, your service, your ware... your whatever is not good to begin with, social media - or ANY advertising/marketing campaign will be able to help.
P.S. - Yes I know I severely over simplified all of this but I did that for two reasons. The first being ADD is rampant and I am the poster child for it, so I purposely kept this post brief. And secondly I was hoping the over simplification would cause all those companies, businesses and marketers to realize that it's pretty simple... without a good, quality product and user-friendly, easy-to-navigate website, it doesn't matter what you do in terms of social media, advertising and marketing.
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