I ran into an article this morning that detailed the following lies, regarding social media marketing.
MYTHS (quoting article)
- Size matters
- Social media gurus do exist
- Social media is a "new" media
- Social media can be effectively outsourced
I disagree, somewhat. I hear these "busted myths" all the time, and this is just the final straw that convinced me to respond:
TRUTH
- Size does matter
- Social media experts exist, to the same degree as in many other professions
- Social media is new, but so is the internet
- Social media can be effectively outsourced sometimes
Now, I mean no disrespect to the author and so I decided not to call him out by name. But here are my explanations.
Size Does Matter
First came the myth that size mattered. Then came the myth that size doesn't matter.
Size matters, but you cannot count anyone in the audience who is a spammer, bot, inactive profile, or is highly disinterested. In other words, if you have 10,000 followers who all fit into these categories - you actually have 0 followers. So yes, a large fan/follower count doesn't necessarily mean anything. But size does matter. Why? Lets say you have 200 dedicated and loyal fans to your Facebook page. After they "like" your page, maybe 20 of them will ever come back to it. But that's ok, because you can still post into their newsfeed. Oh, but they have to be online at the right time in order to see your post. And if your post doesn't get enough interaction, Facebook's algorithm will hide it. Especially if they have a lot of friends. Oh, they might like a bunch of other pages, too. But that's ok because they are loyal to you, so surely they will wade through all the noise to find your posts in their newstream right? And the average lifespan of a tweet is what...5 seconds?
My point is - you're always playing the percentages. What percent of your fans will see X? What percent will share it? What percent will eventually buy or evangelize? You need some mass in order to be continually reaching and growing. If your numbers are small, I am not suggesting that you quit. Just recognize that you are going to spend a lot of time reaching a very small number, for now. You have to grow. Size does matter.
Social Media Experts Exist
Social Media experts do not call themselves social media experts, gurus, or ninjas. If you see one of these, you are almost certainly looking at someone who is new to the arena. However, there are a lot of people that I would consider experts. If an expert is someone who has all the answers, then no - there are no social media experts. Nor financial experts. Nor art experts. Nor any marketing experts. But most elements of social media marketing are not new. The creative art, the science of human behavior, the data analysis, etc. are not new concepts. The tools are new.
We are still learning more and more about social media every day. There are new studies and new charts and figures flying left and right. But this will not stop until the internet stops evolving. In other words, never. There are professionals who can diagnose your business needs and create working solutions. Why can't we call them experts?
Social Media Is New, Just Like The Internet
Some would argue that social media has been around for decades. I myself consider the true birth of social media to be when Myspace entered the scene, but if you want to consider earlier networks like Friendster, I certainly won't argue with you. So let's go with the latest case - Myspace - in 2004. That was 7 years ago. The internet started truly gaining in popularity around the time of Windows 95. But guess what? It wasn't until 2000 that half of the U.S. had internet access. So if the popular internet is 11-16 years old, and social media is at least 7 years old...why are we so stuck on the fresh car smell of social media? It is all new.
The article claims that social media is just another step from traditional media, and to an extent I agree. But there are huge differences in the interactivity of the web, verses TV, print, radio, etc. To say it is just another step is really missing the point. I dare not cover all of that in this post, as many others have already been harping on this for a few years.
Social Media Can Be Outsourced
Sometimes.
This is another old debate. Can social media really be outsourced? There are two elements that most social media managers need: access to information and decision making capability. The real myth here is that internal community managers have any better access to these than someone who is outsourced.
The company must be dedicated to giving proper information to whomever is running the social channels, but the community managers must also have the ability to respond and act. If you can trust an agency to do this, and can make the flow of information efficient, then perhaps you can outsource. Of course, if you don't believe in social media experts or the value of experience, then by all means go ahead and do it all yourself.
That's the end of my rant. I do not claim to be an expert myself - I surely have a long way to go. But please don't be fooled by these simple ear-pleasing statements. The truth is almost always, "it depends."