Silly question, right?

When social media became huge, as in billions of people on Facebook, there was a giant band wagon of people,  telling us all that social media was the future of marketing, and we needed to spend a lot of money to build a presence so we could get rich, right now. Plumbers dreamed of all those gazillions of people on Facebook, just dying to read their latest plumbing triumph.

I don’t have anything against plumbers. When my water heater sprung a leak, a plumber really saved my bacon. But no plumber’s success or failure is going to depend  on their social media activity.

By now some common sense has invaded the social media conversation, but from what I see, most business persons and marketers are still locked into the idea. Climb that Social Media mountain or bust!

People feel they are just doing something wrong, haven’t found the right social media genius, or…. I don’t know what.

Well, let me see if I can inject a little more reality into this subject.

There are many, many businesses for which social media is a key to success.

There are many many businesses which are never going to make a dime from social media efforts.

In between, there are many, many businesses for whom social media have varying degrees of value.

The starting point of sorting this out, is distinguishing the different ways social media are used. There are basically three.

1. As an extension of tradition advertising. Facebook ads fall in this category. The only difference between FB ads and, say, bus stop ads, is one is digital. ALL traditional advertising, whether digital or not, is as effective as it is targeted to the right people, with the right offer.  Facebook targets better than most advertising channels, you get good feedback (metrics) fast, and you only pay for responses. That is a great advantage.
2. As a way to foster two-way communication with customers, and to some degree, potential customers. This isn’t necessarily great for lead generation but can be VERY helpful in providing a way to communicate with your customers (“Our machine broke and orders will be late”) or for customers to share successes or issues they have.
3. As a way of spreading the word about your business or product. This of course was supposed to be what Social Media was all about, but, as my plumber example points out, a lot of businesses don’t have the potential to go viral. They just aren’t interesting enough. Yes, they can provide a good way to help happy customers spread the word, but in a high percentage of businesses, this is going to be a minor contributor to the overall business development effort.

And that’s the bottom line. I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I’m sorry folks, most of you are never going to have people lining up around the block and down the street because of your latest video on Tik-Tok.

Go ahead, prove me wrong. I’m a big boy, I can handle it. Otherwise, work out what Social Media is good for, FOR YOU.

The problem with marketers is, the first thing they market is themselves, and sometimes that’s all they know how to market. Don’t believe all the hype. There are plenty of reality-based opportunities for success