A Cautionary Tale About Social Media Websites

It's true that one avenue businesses will have to pursue as they engage their customers in the future is that of the social media websites. But if they're going to succeed in this new media world, they must be cautious with their strategy, and not just barrel ahead with a big advertising push. Any business must recognize as it begins a corporate social media plan is that the new media finally allows people to avoid the kinds of ad campaigns they have never liked, and still don't like, in the real world.

As an example of bad tactics on social media websites, take a few instances of the behavior of some marketers on Twitter. They induce many people to "follow" them, and then reward followers with an endless barrage of self-promoting announcements, like Twitter is a forum for non-stop press releases. Not once do they actually engage their followers as people, but obviously regard them as a captive audience to preach about their company. Rather than being a good means of social media optimization for those marketers, this tactic prompts their followers to stop following and block them, and never listen to them again.

Another mistake is called "trolling," and it occurs in two ways. The first is where a big business social media account is set up on Twitter to do constant searches for keywords relating to that business. If anyone makes a tweet containing those keywords, then the account sends a "bot" (short for robot) that responds with an advertisement for the company's product on that person's page. Such bots are universally abhorred. In the other form of trolling, someone clearly regards social media websites as a means to funnel individuals indiscriminately into a company's arms. If a Twitter account follows someone, who then notices that the same account is following ten thousand other people but has made only one or two tweets, it's clear that this account is not designed for genuine, personal interaction.

The same tactics are used on Facebook, MySpace, and all other social media websites. But they are a serious mistake, because they demonstrate to people on those sites that they are regarded as nothing more than fodder for marketers; pockets to be emptied with mass marketing tactics, rather than people to be respected. These types of business marketing plans are doomed to be unsuccessful. What marketers need to do to succeed is treat members of social media networks like real people, and engage them in real conversations.

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The Many Sources For News About Social Media
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