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About Me
Alex - Alexandros Poulos is Covisio's Managing Director and co-founder. He enjoys technology marketing, innovative thinking, and living by the sea.
Alex is the main contributor of the On the Scene marketing blog.
Learn more about me here.
What’s in it for Me? Prevailing Misconceptions Around Social Media Marketing
A few months ago I read a nice post by Adam Cohen on when social media is right for your business and when not; it was entertaining and conversational as well as quite truthful. So, based on my own experiences in social media marketing, I wanted to post a few notions that I think are still largely misrepresented in a number of organizations.
| Assumption | Misconception |
| We’ve enabled our site with Web 2.0 features so interaction will happen. | Setting up a Web 2.0 enabled site is easy but it doesn’t get users to contribute. With no social media marketing strategy and poor quality content, these features can be used against you – remember, everyone’s a critic. |
| The SEO tactics we employ drive interaction. | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) drives traffic, not necessarily interactive marketing. Repeat visits and engagements are 100% dependant on users finding value in the information they receive. |
| Our PR or SEO firm writes our blog. | Keyword rich content – yes, authoritative – NO. Users look for subject matter expertise and opportunities to converse with real people in blogs or wikis, and the lack of that provides a golden opportunity for your competitors to fill the void. |
| We repurpose and post our content to all the relevant social media sites. | So do your competitors. As a result, the fight for attention is even fiercer. Only expertly crafted, carefully placed, and perfectly timed content that’s truly valuable to your target audience will separate you from the crowd. |
| We do social media marketing on the side and under the wraps; it’s groundswell anyway. | Social media is not an “experiment” anymore. And actually it’s more than a marketing channel, it’s a commitment. So, unless it’s integrated into your overall marketing plan (and, to a certain level, into your organizations’ culture and strategy as well), it will never work effectively (best case) and it will never be taken seriously – along with your organization (worse case). |
| Our marketing intern manages our Twitter account. | So this is who you want to represent your organization in a channel where your customers, prospects, competitors, competitors’ customers, partners, suppliers, industry analysts, journalists, expert users & practitioners are engaging? Please, rethink how high the stakes are here. |
| We are authorities in our field and we know our brand is well perceived, so why spend resources listening to what others say on social media? | Really? Just listen online for seven days and you will be surprised. |
| Social media is free anyway, so why invest in it? | Nothing is free, sorry. Social media engagements are both time- and resource-intensive; that is if you truly want to generate value to your customers, partners, and company. |
Any other ideas?