Jason Falls over at Social Media Today inspired me with this recent post about why social media purists won't last. I'm by no means a social media purist, in fact as passionate a marketing technologist as I am, I've had huge hangups about social media and the collective ga ga factor surrounding it.
Purists are quick to chastise any social media behavior that feels like selling, citing social media "principles" and the danger of corrupting relationships. On the surface I agree, nothing is more annoying than shameless salesyness (I'm sure that's a word) from near strangers or joining what turns out to be a "SPAMmunity" that provides zero value and a steady stream of irrelevant pitches. There's absolutely a need to tread lightly when it comes to selling in the world of social media. That said, treading lightly does not mean avoiding completely.
Selling in the world of social media requires finesse, which is apparently a skill many marketers seem to lack. The "social" in social media brings many of the same norms as interacting face-to-face. Most people, (multi-level marketers excluded) know better than to dive into a sales pitch with someone they just met five minutes prior. Knowing to avoid this doesn't require a sophisticated methodology or process, it's common sense. Conversations clearly can be directed towards products or services you may provide, it's not easy, the kind of cocktail party magic only a select few are truly good at.
The CEO cares about sales, not interactions, conversations or engagements. The numbers that matter are the numbers that should matter to us as marketers. Tangible, meaningful, bottom line metrics that flow into existing executive dashboards and performance measures. Right now the biggest obstacle for continued business use of social media is crossing the chasm from interaction to transaction. Dell has done it, Southwest Airlines has done it, others have done it. We all have to do it.
Determining what to do is often a lot easier than determining how to do it. The debate about whether or not there's value in social media in my mind is over. Of course there's value in social media. The trick now is cracking the code on how to extract that value and moving beyond being uptight about selling through social media and actually being proud of it.
Selling through social media sometimes feels like you're trying to push Amway products on your neighbor. A little greasy... but I guess everybody's doin' it.
Posted by: The Other Chris | November 23, 2009 at 12:10 PM
There are plenty of people/organizations using social media to "sell." But, as you point out, they're often subtly but quickly "unfriended."
Social media is a marketing milieu that gets mistaken for a sales venue. That is, it's a good place to get known, get liked, and get trusted. If you're successful, won't sales naturally follow?
Posted by: Luis Maimoni | December 04, 2009 at 12:42 AM