

Why Social Marketing Doesn’t Work - wslh
http://timharford.com/2011/07/why-social-marketing-doesn’t-work

======
freddealmeida
I think in this case, Duncan Watts is wrong. I own his book. So social does
work sometimes. :-)

I agree with his statement that SM should start with an experiment, many of
them really. Developing strategies that require viral cascades is a recipe for
failure.

social media is engagement in my view. many small engagements are like small
fires. It is unclear which one will catch. Which message will resonate with
our audience. However, if it does, then investing further energy, getting the
fire to shift and turn into something larger is possible.

He is right that most agencies can not do this. Nor do clients see much value
in small multiple experiments across mediums (sites, technologies, platforms).
Some see this as a risk. few see it as an opportunity. The difficulty is
shifting resources and being able to kill off projects that have little
current value. Most projects in large agencies are priced and resources
allocated (most outsourced)long before the project beings; which means agility
is lost while risk is managed.

This is actually the benefit of a startup. Being able to track real time
metrics, actually creating value and engaging in that creation with their
users/buyers/clients shifting resources as needed.

I think the Ted talk about the Why, How, What circles explains very clearly
why some campaigns are successful and why most fail. If you are starting at
What, you will fail most of the time. If you start from the Why of your
product, community, the philosophy and thoughts and beliefs behind it, there
is a chance that it will be far more appealing.

That some believe Social Marketing does work and does not work only clarifies
that our strategies are poor. Not all TV commercials are culture shaping, nor
do all magazine ads shape society, but to assume that they have no impact is a
large mistake.

Social marketing works. Just not the way you think.

~~~
rickyyean
Good point about how people think about social. They say, "hey let's create a
viral campaign," and dump all this money to agencies to create them. When
campaigns fail, they say social doesn't work. What they don't get is exactly
that, social is an on-going series of experiments, you're basically trying to
create something that will get carried on and shared by a number of individual
human being. Optimizing to Google's search algorithm is a relatively simple
task compared to optimizing your message to one that resonates with hundreds
and thousands of human beings.

------
Eliezer
All traffic to "Methods of Rationality" is driven by word-of-mouth. Maybe the
message here is, "Deliberate social marketing doesn't work."

------
skarayan
I disagree with just about everything in this article. Social marketing works
and it is measurable.

In my experience, the first step is to gain followers or fans. The best way to
do this is through targeted advertising. While it is possible to build a
follower base without advertising, it is harder. Advertising gives the
advantage of speed and targeting.

The second step is to keep providing people with good content, while at the
same time, promoting your product. As you provide content, you can measure the
number of comments and get a feel for peoples' thoughts. This becomes easy
after a while because you become accustomed to your audience and know what
they like.

Does this mean that you are going to be able to sell your product? It really
depends on your product and the market, just like with anything else.

I would question the product-market fit before I questioned the value in
social marketing.

~~~
tokenadult
_Social marketing works and it is measurable._

What are some examples of published measurements that prove this point?

~~~
skarayan
I don't know about published, but I have been able to measure my campaigns by
measuring people's feedback to my posts, clicks on links, total sign-ups,
conversions, etc.

Some things work better than others, but there is a definite feedback cycle
once you have some followers/fans and provide interesting content.

------
dools
There is much more to social marketing than "going viral". Even if I can have
a conversation with 10 people relatively cheaply and easily, that is still of
value. Social marketing is a social exercise, it gives you an immediate
proximity to your audience. Just because you're not making a video with a
million hits on youtube doesn't mean ur doin it rong, or that it's not having
a positive effect on your business.

------
schiptsov
Social media marketing is quite simple. ^_^ If you trying to put advertisement
sections in, say, FB to promote your product - you will fail (FB will just
earn your money) but if your product is so good, that several members of some
thematic community will recommend it - you will get a huge boost.

That is why, for example, some hotels are always crowded with middle-class
tourist while same type hotel next corner is empty and selling rooms to
whores.

So, don't advertise crappy brand or service on FB - develop your brand or
service first, and then customers will promote you on FB themselves.

------
theseanstewart
I have several ecommerce clients that use Twitter and Facebook for social
media efforts. Here's an average of their conversion rates: All Traffic
Sources (3.34%), Facebook (2.55%), Twitter (0.23%). Average number of twitter
followers: 6,280. Traffic from Twitter is pretty much worthless. In fact, they
wouldn't even be using it if it wasn't for Google.

------
fleitz
Social media isn't meant for marketing, it's meant for PR.

37Signals doesn't use their blog for marketing they use it for PR and
education. This attracts an audience, and once in a while they'll visit SVN on
a day they're talking about Highrise and once in a while they'll go see what
37Signals actually does. Even when they launch software like the iPad app it's
put in a PR context (we can make a paint prog with ONE color and get lots of
sales, you can too!)

If you want to post press releases on your Twitter you will fail, if you want
to call out Salesforce as a silly business because of their margins then you
will get readers in droves.

If you want to use social media for marketing, buy some ads.

~~~
schiptsov
_37Signals doesn't use their blog for marketing_ \- really? PR and pseudo-
education _IS_ marketing. It is like forex.com "teaching" you some basics of
trading.

37signals is actually very simple thing and very common formula - 3 or 4
really smart people(high IQ, well educated in different fields) joining
forces.

------
ams6110
A better title would drop the "Why" because the "why" is not really answered.
Indeed, the message of this piece is that we DON'T understand why some
messages spread on social network, only that some do and most don't.

