What Social Media Cannot Do For Your Company
It’s 2019 and the number of times it’s been said that social media is extremely important to reach new and existing customers is probably a little more than 53646384 times.
While there are no lies there, many CMOs and CEOs wrongly assume that setting up a Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts for their exciting new brand or product will catapult their growth overnight.
If only it worked that way.
To understand Social Media Marketing you need to understand what it can and what it cannot do for you.
In this article, I’ll try to highlight the things it can absolutely not do for you.
1. Social Media won’t give you a good product.
Social Media pages and accounts all over the webverse will not suddenly make your product great. The Fyre Festival for instance, for all its marketing on Social Media, turned out to be a colossal failure.
2. Social Media is not PR.
While it is great at connecting and engaging with new and future customers Social Media is not good old public relations. And should not be used to replace press releases, product launches and other forms of marketing communications essential to the growth and life support of your brand or product.
3. Social Media is not the Tripod, it’s just one stand.
Social Media is not Digital Marketing. It is only one part of the many parts of digital marketing. So you can’t expect to get traction from Social Media that blogs, for instance, should get you. On its own, Social Media will fall flat on its face. All your channels need to work together and in support of each other.
4. Social Media does not exist in a Vacuum.
We all begin life offline, no matter how much time we spend on our mobile phones arguing with strangers over the internet. Social Media Marketing will not perform magic if its activities are not predicated on offline activities. So before you begin to ask to see numbers from Social Media that should leave you spinning and woozy, ensure that there is a sufficient amount of activities going on offline or in real time, that can be shared on Social Media.
5. Social Media Will Not Save You Money.
Okay, let’s understand this. Social Media Marketing will make you tons of money when done right. But to assume that it is a means to save a lot of money by cutting down on other channels of communications and simply hiring an intern with a smartphone to *tweet* *tweet* *tweet* is a horrendously wrong idea. Social Media Marketing will require you to make a substantial investment in it, and as far as numbers show when done right, you can get a great bang for your buck on it.
What are your expectations from a social media marketing campaign? Has this post helped made them more realistic?
Share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section.
