Don’t Make Me Like You

Posted on July 12, 2011May 5, 2015 by MD

Image by striatic via Flickr

Facebook is a large part of many marketing campaigns which truly is no surprise. People who are on Facebook are engaged and like to interact with friends, family and even brands. However, while as a marketer I understand the marketing tactics involved such as using the Like as a gatekeeper, as a user I truly detest it. A feeling I am not alone in.

I don’t want everything linked to my Facebook account. No, I don’t want to tell my friends. No, I don’t want you sending me status updates and posting on my wall. I use Facebook how I want to use it. Stop trying to force me to use it your way.

A Like is only as valuable as the person behind it. If you make me Like you to enter your contest or view your conference agenda, I can just as easily unlike you and even block you once I’ve gotten the information I want. What value is there in that? When you force a Like, it’s like having your mother tell you you can’t go play with your friends until your chores are done. You didn’t like it as a kid and you certainly don’t like it now.

Now, I’m not saying don’t lock content behind a Like, just give me more value for the transaction and quit forcing it. If I want to connect with you, I will be happy to do it but on my terms.

The same goes for Twitter, Google+ (once brands become more prominent), or one of the other smaller social sites or sites that just don’t exist yet. Anytime you try to force your customer’s to behave how you want them to, you’re potentially losing that customer. Unfortunately for you, you won’t know how valuable they were or weren’t until they’re gone.

Is Social Media Hurting Your Marketing Efforts?

Posted on April 27, 2011May 5, 2015 by MD

Just like a shiny new toy, social media marketing is the hot new thing. But as I wrote about in Is Social Media Right for Your Business?, it isn’t for everyone and can actually do more harm than good.

Last month I received this email:

The email is nice and clean and with a direct call to action; get involved with their social media profiles. Imagine my surprise when I clicked through and found this:

Their Facebook page at least has some current content, but not much and huge timeline gaps where nothing is posted.

What’s the big deal, right? If you don’t have anything to post, it’s better to not post anything, right?

I disagree. Social media is not a part time thing. If you’re not truly interacting and providing new and relevant content you’re either forgotten or seen as noise and ignored.

Looking at that twitter page, what incentive do I have to follow you? And if I did out of loyalty to the brand, I will quickly forget to look for anything from you because you’re not committed to it and actively interacting. Now, if you finally do get your act together and start getting involved, I’m probably not going to notice because I’ve already forgotten about you.

Talk about a lost opportunity huh?

What Opportunities are You Overlooking?

Posted on April 13, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

Twitter is often cited as a great new marketing tool that truly brings one-to-one marketing to the forefront.

But truly, what good is this tool if you don’t really use it?

A few months ago I was looking into getting a new cellular phone, and as there were so many fantastic new options, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to get. Knowing what a fantastic resource Twitter can be, I asked my network what phones they had and what they liked or disliked about them. As I already have two iPods, my only requirement was no iPhones.

As expected, I got lots of terrific feedback from a wide variety of people. But guess who I didn’t hear a word from? A single person in the mobile industry.

This would have been a great opportunity for Palm and Sprint to jump into the conversation if not to put their two cents in, than to thank their customers who were speaking so highly of their products. Or for T-Mobile to jump in to keep me as a customer, or Verizon to try and steal me away as I was no longer under contract.

Plenty of opportunities presented themselves all the way from the store level to the mobile brand to the cellular carrier, but not a single person took advantage of them. Needless to say after three days of conversations on Twitter, I made my choice which I’m happy with.

Recently I was surprised to actually have a company do on Twitter exactly what too few companies take the time to do.

The Toronto Rock saw my tweet regarding a specific product of theirs I thought I was out of luck on and responded with a direct link to it on their website.

(Well, at least the closest thing to it as the specific item I was lamenting was a game worn jersey auctioned off for charity.)

The result? They made a sale.

It doesn’t matter how niche or mainstream your product is, plenty of opportunities exist if you’re genuinely willing to take the time to not only search them out, but respond to them individually in a way that shows you actually are paying attention and not just searching specific keywords regardless of context.

Think You Can Automate Your Marketing?

Posted on March 3, 2010May 5, 2015 by MD

With the growth of social media, many companies want to get involved, but don’t really want to divert resources to these untested areas. Often, companies set them up and forget about it, or they try to keep it active by passively automating it. After all, why should you pay for someone to manage your social media when you can automate it?

I need to point out that I don’t believe this Twitter page is associated with the Levi’s brand as they list their twitter account as Levisguy on their home page, however, it is associating itself with the Levi’s brand and regardless of its legitimacy, provides an effective example.