Thank you for your perspective on the term “social media marketing”. I think that you are right that it misleads people. I may continue to use it, but with clarification.

The biggest challenge I see for social media is that it is new and uncharted territory. It’s like a gold rush with everyone dashing to stake their claims. A few, like you, study about how to improve it instead of how to capitalize on it. The rest are measuring success by easily accessed analytics (number of followers) and selling their snake oil to unsuspecting companies. Most of this will disappear as the channel evolves. Until then, we have to deal with the noise.

Typically when social media folks (I am one) state that they mean conversation with customers or prospects. Not with every Joe/Jane Doe on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (although that seems to happen quite a bit with some folks). Companies have been ignoring their customers for so long that 1) customers are having conversations with other potential customers about them or 2) customers are sharing negative or positive experiences and the organizations aren’t listening, having a conversation, saying thank your and/or fixing the problem/issue.

You are right, numbers me nothing unless they are people that might buy your product or service or at least recommend you.

I am not a fan of the term “social media marketing” because it leads business people to believe that they can get tons of new leads just by being on Twitter, Facebook or having a blog. They are sold by SMM consultants that it’s that simple. And the reality is that that it simply doesn’t work that way…just because a consultant or organization knows how to use these these tools doesn’t mean you get marketing or how to build relationships that end in a sale for your business. Not only that, but social media is a lot of hard work.

Honestly, I will say I think others “falsely measure” social media by the number of followers someone has. They put people on pedestals just because they have tons of followers and that’s just as wrong. Most of the people who truly believe in the business benefits of social media and engaging in conversations with their customers aren’t living in that world…they work hard, they have conversations with their customers/prospects and they are very focused on what they are doing in the social media space. But, then again, maybe that’s just the people I know…

Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte

Most have no idea who their target market is. They GUESS at it, they work with “Confident Assumptions;” but ask the real questions and many seem to get offended. How dare you question them with the concept of a data-driven decision!

Most businesses are pound foolish, spending millions without results but are supposedly penny wise for not spending even a day reviewing who actually wants/buys what they need. This is the critical first step that ego gets in the way of.

So I agree – as an online and social media professional – that 50,000 followers are useless unless they’re in your market. There always will be a blend of personal and professional followers; but setting that aside, for the marketing part, it’s much better to talk to 1,000 people who care than 10,000 who don’t. After all, this is supposedly our advantage over industrial media – that the people we’re engaging are the right people as opposed to a shotgun approach – but old habits and the human nature of egos wanting lots of followers for the sake of followers tend to overtake most folks.

Not to justify but to explain – many times, that large number is what sells and that’s what clients want, the large numbers. It’s really hard for most either traditional or social to grasp the concept of targeting as outlined above, even people who’ve been doing it for a long time – sometimes, those are the worst. The allure of “big numbers” is just too much.