Social Media is a Tool…Not The Strategy

For some time now I’ve felt a little uneasy about the hype around social media. Initially I wasn’t entirely sure why, especially as I’ve always been all for grabbing the opportunity social media provides for connecting with people in a new way. I just knew that, as the noise increased, so, it seemed did businesses’ struggles to make sense of social media from a business perspective. It should be a no-brainer, really. Get seen, get found, get millions of eyeballs and no more marketing needed. Except that’s not the case. Instead of social media being seen a strategic enabler (oh, ok then tool) it’s being lauded more and more as the strategy. Which is barmy.

Then there is the time factor, that double edged sword. To get results from anything, you need to invest the time. But not only are some not willing to invest months (having been sold on getting instant results) they also are faced with spending a considerable amount of time on as many social networks as possible in order to connect with as many “fans, followers and faves” as possible.

From being a tool to connect, social media is fast becoming another broadcast medium. This is somewhat inevitable – marketers will market and a large part of that marketing is broadcasting a message to constituents. Whichever social media tool gets them there the fastest seems to do. At the same time far from being part of a business and marketing strategy, it looks like social media, the tactic has itself become the strategy. If that’s the case there are some big disappointments on the way.

A growing unease

So when I came across The Blindsiding and Bubble of Social Media by highly respected Sean Moffitt of Buzz Canuck, I felt almost relieved, that it wasn’t just me feeling this unease. There are some timely points in his article (which I bet gets less attention than it should do) which are worth reading. The social media hype is getting noisier. Some fundamental tenets of social networking (such as advocating, building relationships and engaging and business strategy) are  being jettisoned for the heady high of social media – by its practitioners. Who can withstand the promise of 25,000 Twitter followers in a day?  And doesn’t having a Facebook Fan page with 20,000 fans mean you’ve arrived as a company?

The Blindsiding and Bubble of Social Media is worth reading more than once. I encourage you to do so, (and not because I commented) because it gives  food for thought for how we help clients understand and find value in using social media for the long term, not as a fad.

Telling comments

I found the comments especially illuminating.

• The pressure to call oneself a “social media expert” (or be thought seemingly) unfit to talk about social media) is real. The uneasiness about social media running almost sans business strategy is real too.
• The desire for some common sense and a lid on the hype isn’t secret either. But most will just tune out.
• Then, as one commentator put it succinctly there is the problem of “real world applications of social media becoming lost in a haze of social  media experts talking endlessly prattling about “community.”
• Also worrying is the seeming inability of social media practitioners to tie social media into business goals and true engagement… engagement that may take months and years to build and that needs a long term strategy that goes beyond mere tactics.

And here’s a telling quote from the article:

“- social media loves to eat their own children – there is a culture of “gotcha-ism” in the Twitter and blogging landscape that makes big companies targets – and yet the most vocal social media-ites among them, question why these brands are slow to embrace it (it’s kind of like hiring the worst, cantankerous employee over for Sunday night dinner each week to tell you and your family how much they hate you). Reality is, the best engaged companies do not practice the “one voice, one vote” rule – show your commitment, knowledge, investment to get things right and influence companies for the better and scale the ladder of access to corporations; act like a social media troll or curmudgeon and wonder out loud why brands turn tone deaf…”

Social Media – here and now

Social media is here to stay (the very fact that this can be shared on blogs, and social networking platforms is a case in point). Its use has changed and is changing the way companies  view their stakeholders. It can be very powerful and for businesses at least carries more implications than for a person.  But it needs to be not “the next big bright shiny you must do thing.” It’s more than a Facebook page, and more than just another channel.  It’s more than having a Twitter account and, for those carping at big companies who don’t drop everything and become social media case studies, one size does not fit all. Social media needs to be part and parcel of a company’s business and marketing strategy and address much more than broadcast. That goes hand in hand with understanding what success actually looks like and how to get (and yes, measure) return on whatever’s being invested.

Meanwhile, have a read of the  post on Buzz Canuck and the reader comments. Plenty of food for thought. Add your own comments here or on Buzz Canuck and, if you’ve read this far, thanks for reading.

Photo credit -  The photo in this post is one of my favourites – I took it on my our first visit to beautiful Quebec City, Canada,  in 2006. The sculpture as surreal in real-life as it is in the photo, in fact, more so.  It really is called “Education” and, in the spirit of social, it’s my pleasure to share it with you.

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Tagged as: blogging, buzz canuck, Social Media Marketing, socialmedia, socialmedia strategy