It may come as a surprise to you to hear me say that social media doesn’t work. After all, I wrote a book about it called How to Make Money with Social Media (which is going to have a revised and updated edition coming out this fall). Given that, how can I come out and say that social media doesn’t work, especially when I have a book and a blog that say the opposite?
Perhaps I should rephrase what I mean by this to be more clear: Social Media Doesn’t Work the Way You Think it Does. Many people think social media is free. It’s not. Many people think social media generates leads easily. It doesn’t. And many people think social media is a silver bullet. Nope.
The problem starts when people running campaigns focus on the wrong metrics. They get excited when they see a bump in Likes, Follows or impressions, but those don’t really matter in the long run.
In fact, getting excited about Likes, Follows or impressions is like measuring your success with the opposite sex based on how many people attend the church social. Sure, it’s great to have a lot of people at the social, but your success all comes down to whether or not you close the deal. If you can’t close the deal, it doesn’t matter how many people attended the social.
In similar fashion, it’s not about the number of prospects your business comes in contact with, it’s about the number of those contacts that you convert to customers.
I discussed this concept in great detail in a post I wrote a few months ago called An In-Depth Guide to Calculating the ROI of a Social Media Campaign.
The blog post talks about the importance of moving a Like, Follow or impression down the sales funnel until it turns into a customer. Once that happens, you’re golden. But until then, the number of Likes, Follows or impressions are just datapoints on a spreadsheet.
Its worth noting that the article mentioned above has been shared over 2600 times. That’s a pretty good number. But so far, the article has generated zero new clients for 60 Second Communications. So, if I’m going to follow my own line of reasoning on this, then the value of the blog post is zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
Right?
Well, Not Exactly.
Yes, I know I just got through telling you that the only true value of a social media campaign is if it results in a customer. And that’s correct. But the value of social media goes beyond the direct response value. In other words, the value of a social media campaign can also be viewed from a branding perspective, too.
Here’s what I mean — the post I wrote about Social Media ROI was shared over 2600 times, which is nice. But, as mentioned, it hasn’t resulted in a direct lead, let alone a customer.
However, that’s not the whole picture. The whole picture is that because of blog posts like that, I was able to get my first book deal. And because of my first book deal, I was able to get on TV. And because I was on TV, I was able to broaden my exposure to prospective clients.
But still. I’ve never gone to a book signing event or finished a media interview that resulted in a client directly tied to those events.
So, then why do them?
Because they result in my ability to get new business prospects to respond to my emails and phone calls.
In other words, because of the blog and everything else associated with the blog, I’m able to email and call client prospects at Coca-Cola, IHG (the parent company of Holiday Inn), Oracle and other well-known brands and get them to respond to my new business queries.
See where all this is going? Social media is often thought of as a lead generation tool and while it can generate leads, the real value may be in its ability to create a meaningful brand that is top-of-mind with your prospects.
When your brand is top-of-mind, then it makes the job of your salesforce that much easier. And when the salesforce converts at a higher rate than they have in the past because of your social media program, you make more money. And when you make more money, everyone is happy
I hope all this is helpful for you. At a minimum, it’s made you think about social media in a slightly different light. At a maximum, it may have made you shift around some of your priorities when it comes to digital marketing.
As always, thanks for being part of the 60 Second Nation. We’re glad to have you on board. And if you have any thoughts or comments about this or any other post, please leave them in the comments section below.
Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, a marketing communications agency that works with national and international brands. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.