Will social buddies run away when ads pop up?

Hi there,

I felt it was appropriate to start my first Hark! blog with a quote about social media that underlines what the latest fuss is all about:

“I see it as a place to build relationships, but it’s not for direct selling. That’s not what people want to receive on Facebook. People are there to socialize… If you pitch them, they will ignore you, or worse.”

- Dan McCarthy – Network Communications Inc

Now if you’re like me, and have clients look you in the face and say “how do they convert? If you tell me that I’ll hire you.”  Then you sit right in the middle of this need to push the conversation in the direction of a sale or a conversation point.   I have to tell them that we’ll be searching for the ability to post a direct connect with your shopping cart forever, but Social Media remains a different kind of marketing tool.  It’s more about the slow and delicate process of finessing the message and building the brand.  Yeah, I know it’s the web and everyone is use to things happening at lighting speed, but there’s no magic bean yet.

The real problem with the shift from PR to sales, as pointed out by Michael Newbarth in his insightful post “Social Media Mania,” is the fact that there is no standard way of measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing.  Well there are a plethora of new SM analytic tools hitting the web now claiming they have the “magic bean,” so I’m not ready to throw in the towel. (This is a good topic for a future post).

I agree with Michael and other folks who say how to measure the impact of  social media is a sticky issue.   But whether the ROI studies have to be custom or you are happy with something “off the shelf,” the real value of social media is simply “word of mouth.”   Yep, it goes back to the early days of “viral marketing,” seeding chat rooms and posting at fan sites.  After all, it’s people you are dealing with, not web robots (although my mom would like to think those ipods are turning kids into robots).

While I will be watching for the latest trend to monetize and drive sales, I still fall into the camp that says Social Media is more for PR than for Marketing.

Will those ipod newbies run and hide when the ads start popping up in all their precious social nests?   No, but some will be pissed off and let you know it.  Most will just move to the next place on the web and us marketing types will just have to follow.  To push or not to push the sales pitch; that is the question.   But we’ve learned one of the best marketing opportunities is a simple conversation.  If you’ve got something worth selling, you’ve got to talk to the right people, nurture advocates and let them to sell it for you.  So, let’s be thankful the web is ballooning with many places to engage.  Onward.

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