I had the pleasure of running a social media session at a recent conference. One of the primary reasons I wanted to run this session was because of all the garbage that’s out there about social media. Not a week goes by when I don’t see some article about a “successful” social media campaign only to realize upon reading the article that their measurement of success was that the thing actually launched!
On whose scale is that either measurable or successful? D’oh! Many purveyors of social media use smoke and mirrors that tell a warm fuzzy story, but never talk about true measurable results. This demonstrates how naive our industry is: by writing stories with big, attention-getting headlines that exaggerate, they seduce everyone into imagining a big bucks outcome… and don’t really tell the truth. And our journalists from our own industry media report it as it’s told to them – which expands the perception of big money making success.
Social media is a challenge because many companies waste inordinate amounts of time (time = money) on campaigns that don’t pay off. We don’t want this to turn into the “dot com boom syndrome” (DCBS) where people start pouring money into it without measurement. I know companies who can’t afford to hire someone, who have hired a ‘social media guru’ with their whole job to just work on that. But others I know have done well without hiring anyone new. In fact, sometimes it’s best to have the ‘insiders’ creating the messaging anyway. They know the voice of their own business, unlike a newbie or an outsider.
When a $61B company like Dell pours a cool million into social media, it’s nuthin’ at all. When a typical small to midsized business pours hours and hours of labor into it, this makes social media financially dangerous territory if not carefully monitored.
Ah – back to the presentation! Glenda Ervin of Lehman’s Hardware, one of the nation’s most successful small to mid-sized businesses, is ‘in charge’ of their social media, along with her many other responsibilites. This company sells non-electric tools and products for the farm and the home—everything from wood stoves to hand-churned ice cream makers… real “off-the-grid” stuff! And they’re incredible at finding quality products that people want.
Lehman’s is on Facebook and Twitter, and of course this is even more intriguing because it seems so counterintuitive given the off-the-grid nature of most of their customers.
However, these types of social media connect customers and enthusiasts to other like-minded individuals and to the Lehman family who still owns and run Lehman’s. They use it to ask their customers about what they’d like to see in the catalog, what buying choices they should offer, and how their products are being used. As people email in answers, the testimonials also roll in! This is manna from heaven in the marketing world. Customers as evangelists sell more product than one could ever imagine.
Another of our presenters was Scott Wentzell of Thos. Moser, a high-end creator and purveyor of handmade solid wood furniture, based in Maine. Thos. Moser uses Facebook and Twitter to connect a network together that includes fans of beautiful furniture, interior designers, customers and more, and the conversation keeps these people engaged and sharing their values. Plus, they can share links to presentations by and about the founder, Tom, and his son, David, who is the talented designer of all current lines. This connection capability is an extraordinary plus for social media—people want to know the founder and the family, just as they do with Lehman’s.
Our third presenter was Jennifer Levanduski of VWR Science Education. Now this was very different indeed, as a large group of her customers are educators and scientists, and they aren’t networking on Twitter or Facebook. Their venues are dominated by the educators’ and scientists’ markets: physics blogs, forums for physics teachers, and more. These are old platforms that most of us have never even heard of—but in their industry, these are the places to go.
Additional bits in the session included some resources for measuring Twitter for response and outcome, tips on keeping entries in Facebook and Twitter interesting, and more.
The most valuable lessons of the session may well have been these:
- Choose your platform based on where your people are going, not on where you just assume they go.
- Choose a limited number of platforms. There are hundreds out there, but only one or two are right for you, and you can only maintain a few if you’re as short on time as most of us are. Don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s worse to abandon one of them once you’ve launched it than to never start it at all.
- Limit how much time is spent—that means time budgeting and sticking with it. Social media can be a huge time suck if you’re not careful.
- Keep it interesting. If adding video really adds value—products in use or an expansion of culture—think about it. If you can share and access goodies that are out there already to support your brand and your culture, do it. And never, ever let the same thing show up again and again, or you’re bound to bore your customers and they’ll opt out.
- Measure as much and as often as you can. There are measuring tools, and you can set up your own tests with specific product to create opportunities to measure.
- Write thoughtfully and efficiently. At Lehman’s, they write most of a week’s Facebook entries and tweets over the course of about 2 to 3 hours on a Saturday morning. This is not rocket science, folks—it’s sharing news and cultural goodies that your market wants to see and will share with others. And it’s certainly not going to keep their attention if you discuss inane stuff that doesn’t move them.
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