One reason to invest in social media.
To paraphrase Willie Sutton: “Because that’s where the money will be.”
Vast pools of digital ink-equivalent have been expended over the past couple of years describing (or just wondering) how to calculate the return-on-investment of money spent on corporate social media initiatives.
Some of this work has been very good, and certainly the implementation of it calls for grownup business conversations, not just echo-chamber evangelism of the “Social media is awesome!” variety.
But two trends seem clear to me:
1. By its social nature, when it’s done right, social media can bypass some of the reflexes of the modern consumer. Not for nothing does each of us cultivate anti-marketing or anti-advertising reflexes in our own roles as consumers. To put it another way, there’s a reason why so many people from all walks of life hate-hate-HATE to be interrupted by a telemarketer during dinner. But social media offers the chance to form some sort of not-purely-commercial human connection between a company and its customer. I’ve made this argument before in describing how “Social media makes merchants of us all.”
2. Money is fleeing traditional media outlets in droves. At the moment, a lot of would-have-been advertising dollars (and euros, pounds, etc.) simply aren’t being spent because of harsh economic conditions. But many other still-being-spent ad dollars are simply moving online as newspapers, network television, and other traditional advertising outlets stagnate.
So, the various types of social media give businesses new opportunities to talk with customers, at the same time that those customers are moving away from traditional media outlets. Even better, businesses can genuinely talk with customers, not just at them as in traditional advertising. I’m saying what a thousand others have said before me, but it bears repeating in the current climate of economic uncertainty.
It’s early days yet for social media. When I was talking with Brian Haven yesterday, he and I agreed that we’re at the Model T stage — if not earlier — for social media as a whole. And the world’s current macroeconomic conditions cast all kinds of doubt on where things are headed, whether we’re talking about old-school advertising, online spending, investment in social-media platforms, or whatever. No one said divining the future was easy.
But, best I can tell, investing in social media takes advantage of major trends that don’t look like changing anytime soon.
What do you think?
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Addendum, Wednesday afternoon – These two items seem highly germane to this discussion:
- Jeremiah Owyang: Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn
- Scott Monty: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?
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(Photo by covilha.)
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5 Comments so far
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No question, social media is a great opportunity to interact with customrs in new, non-traditional ways. I think the thing most marketers, business development teams, and even executives are wondering is just how to use the medium correctly. Or, in some cases, at all. Given the economic challenges many are facing, funds and resources spent there can be just as wasted without a good strategy and clear goals.
Great article Tim.
Michael brings up a good point, the money could easily be wasted without a solid plan and defined goals, but I think all too often companies and individual execs look at Social Media as having different goals than the core of their business and their existing revenue streams. Ultimately the tools that are built to help customers and prospects communicate with the business and each other support the business, shore up the foundations and provide new opportunities to learn and expand.
It comes down to communication. This new wave of tools makes it easier to connect and discuss with all of your clients, not just those few who you call or who call you.
I’ll wrap it up by saying that now is the time to invest in the core of your business. For every business that core is made up of customers, and for the first time in a very long while there is a real opportunity to renew and improve upon relationships. The cost to add social media tools to a company (it goes far beyond the Web or the ‘Net as a whole) is minor, while the benefits, both spreadsheet-tangible and emotionally-driven are great. We’ll see the good companies stand a little taller when we come out of the current economic downturn, rising above the insular and fearful.
Michael & Alex — thanks for these good points.
In tough times, bad companies look to the wrong places to make cuts. They skimp on capital improvements, for example, while overspending on short-term items. Plenty of these folks will look past social media, thinking of it as “fluff,” instead of probing to realize that it offers all kinds of benefits that are highly cost-effective & deserve investment.
The considerations that Owyang & Monty raise in the links I’ve just added are particularly germane in this connection.
I’m a huge proponent of investing in social media, and my employer has been quite supportive. But I think companies need to be careful to actually walk the walk when it comes to respecting (or, better, embracing) social norms in social media. I’ve seen corporate blogs that simply repackage press releases Twitterbots that tweet out links to them.
Social media require that companies not only invest time and money, but also soul and effort. I think that too many companies reduce social media investment to a marketing expense, rather than buying into its implications for corporate culture. The resulting lack of return then justifies defunding the investment.
Daniel — Thanks for this thoughtful comment. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about the “implications for corporate culture.”
Social media, if you’re doing it well, implies openness, honesty, transparency, and fallibility to a degree that makes many business leaders uncomfortable.