A lot of noise and no sense? Social marketing

There is a lot of noise out there on the internet. A lot. I am trying to fathom a plan to rise above that noise, be heard and make sense to customers. Everyone is talking about social, wisdom of the crowd, the people's internet and in return organisations are trying to tap in to this by creating more noise in all those places where the crowds are gathering, talking, discussing, spouting off, showing off. Widgets by the thousands are appearing, api's, aggregator services, more and more social sites, rss sites.



My main concern when thinking up this plan of attack on social media, is trying to understand why people use these sites. Yes, there is an initial excitement when you spend a lot of time setting up your profile, choosing that all essential picture and best of all, picking your 'friends'. And let's not forget the hours trawling through all the widgets and api's which you can add to your profile, the groups you can join and the messages you send to those friends who haven't yet (really, haven't yet?) joined one of these sites and then wait anxiously until they accept your invitation. The next few weeks are spent going back to the site to check if you have any new messages from these friends ... and there isn't anything so you change your profile picture and your current status (which you leave for weeks because you have forgotten to change it back). Until you realise that actually, nothing ever really happens, you don't really want to look at that friends new uni pictures (drunk again) and well, you can't be bothered to leave messages for your friends because they don't send one back.


Then someone asks if you are a twit ... sorry, a twitter, so you join, update your whereabouts a few times and start to question why you are doing this, after all if you are meeting someone, they know where you are, if you have left your house chances are, whoever you live with knows where you are going and if you have a stalker, well why would you want them to know where you are.

I joined Rummble the other day. And a couple of days later I got a slightly obscure and weird email from a slightly obscure and weird person talking about Staines, the town. Why do I want to get emails from random people I don't know, when I spend all day sorting through work emails and emails from random people I do know? And what on earth do I have to say about Staines? I have driven through there once, and got lost. Maybe he thinks I own it because of my name? The witty part of me would reply to him and say 'I know, it's my town, I own it' but well, it's not very funny and it's simply not true. Oh yes, and I don't have the time; aside from emails I have a raft of to do's: online banking, online credit card payments, online shopping ... and writing this blog.

The slightly cynical way in which I talk about these things is because all these things seem really fly by night. Do they really enhance people's lives? What is wrong with seeing your friends face to face, a phone call or at worst, an email?


I have had some success with social stuff; I got in contact through LinkedIn with an business partner of old and now we are working together on a project. But actually that is all at the moment. Maybe I am not using it effectively, but these are the things I should know about using so am I right in thinking that it's all going over the top and is no longer useful or fun or am I in a minority?

The problem I have is that the bandwagon has been jumped on and everyone is now talking about social marketing. But is this really any different to paid for search engine marketing; after all you are still, as a business, trying to get your voice heard amongst a lot of noise.

But let's face it, all the statistics out there show that this is still a growing trend and not likely to stop. People enjoy it and it seems that people are once again forming communities around them, just like the old village communities that existed back in the hey day when there were no cars, public transport etc and people lived and died by their community and only this community they knew. Which is no bad thing, and it happens to be online which gives organisations the opportunity to get involved.

But when organisations get involved in this they need to get it right. There is little point in creating more noise and confusion. Use the tools well and you will see a return - through brand engagement and customers engaging with you more and more and therefore including you in their lives. For example, don't force users to visit a different site when doing a viral campaign on Facebook. Keep it within the destination the customer has chosen to go. Make it compelling enough to be included in the customer's online social life and by dint of that, their friends/community, don't make it just another sell.

Be social with your customers and give them reason to socialise with you without making them feel the benefit is all yours.

Be responsive to the talk that is out there about your organisation, react to it, don't let it fester and therefore prove to customers that they are right in being negative about you (as this will more often than not be the case, but positive feedback should be responded to also).

There's lots more but it's all about being involved in the right way and enhancing the overall experience your customer has of you as a brand - journey with the customer, don't create new journeys for them.