social media strategy Archives by Mark Murnahan

Stop Fighting With Time and Build a Better Marketing Plan

If you pick a fight with time, time will always win. When it comes to your marketing and business strategy, time is not a good excuse for failure, but it is a popular scapegoat.

I often hear people say they just don’t have enough time. I want to inspire you to question how you are using your time, and how you could be doing it better.

You can scale this however you like – from an individual to the largest corporations – time is a very precious business resource. I want you to take this personally, so I’m scaling this down to just you. That’s because you are responsible to yourself, first. It’s easy to scale this up and see how it can affect any company of any size.

If you are wasting time doing the wrong things, you can stop complaining right now, because you are getting exactly what you asked for. You must defend your time, and treat it like the valuable asset it truly represents to your business.

Why Do Competitors Always Have More Time?

Lack of time is one of the most common excuses I hear from people about why their marketing is in shambles. It is an especially popular excuse that people will use for neglecting their online market. They will say “I don’t have time to understand and use social media” or “I don’t have time to write a blog.”

Others will sit and gaze into Twitter or Facebook for hours on end while deluding themselves that they are actually being productive. Worse yet, some will spend countless hours trying to get more people to click on their website links, without a productive marketing plan that addresses who is clicking or why they would want to.

People who are using the excuse of time will seldom like to accept that although they “don’t have the time”, their competition does have the time, and they are using it to win market share. Let me tell you, it’s not about the amount of available time – it’s how they prioritize the resource.

Time and Money Are Friends on Facebook

It’s tragic but expected that I hear the excuse of time-shortage from the same people who say they don’t have enough money. That’s more than just coincidence. Using time poorly will usually have a pretty devastating affect on finances, while using money badly creates a huge drain on time.

Just imagine how much more you could afford to delegate to others if you just started using your time better. Then you could surely get a lot more done. Yes, indeed, time and money are deeply connected.

The challenges of time and money cause an ugly and wasteful dilemma, and until priorities are sorted out, the cycle of waste will continue. Here’s the kicker though – you have exactly the same amount of time as everybody else.

Don’t Let Yourself Off the Hook!

I’m not going to criticize others about their poor use of time without accepting my own guilt. I shudder to look at how many useful or interesting things I see on the Internet, but only make minimal use of. I have a huge stockpile of links to articles I mean to finish reading – but I’ll have to get back to them after I follow up on some email. It all gets pretty messy without a solid routine – and a whole lot of discipline.

Discipline is especially important once you click open a web browser. There is always something shiny, blinky, and time-robbing just a click away. Controlling those urges to try and see and do everything is a big step toward productivity. You simply have to shut some of it off, and if you miss a few things, it is likely for the best. You cannot do and see it all, and you should stop trying. Focused and highly disciplined use of your time at a that computer can make a huge difference in the outcome of your goals.

I don’t have it perfect, and neither do you. What I can claim is that I’m trying, and I hope you are trying, too.

Stop Being Defensive and Delusional

People are often reluctant to accept that when they use the “not enough time” excuse it is largely because they are using their time poorly. Many people are quite defensive about their inefficient use of time. After all, who likes to accept the reality that they are messing things up, and it’s all their own fault? Denial is a wicked thing, so it’s best to just accept it – you can do a better job of time management.

Accept this fact: Time levels the playing field, and it is one way that we really are equal. It is 168 hours since this time last week, and 168 hours until this time next week. Spending those hours wisely is a huge factor in success and failure.

If you don’t have time to do things you know you should be doing, it is time to take a closer look at what you are doing that wastes your time. Since we each have exactly the same number of hours in a day, days in a week, and weeks in a year, time is not the problem. Priorities … now there’s the real challenge!

How Was Your 168 Hours?

It’s another Friday, and I’m gazing back through my week at what I have done – and also what I have not done. This week was not any longer than last week, nor shorter than next week. As expected, 168 hours have passed since this time last Friday, and I have 168 hours until this time next Friday.

I didn’t complete my recent objective of finding the job of my dreams this week. I’m willing to accept that it is largely my own fault. I made a lot of progress, but I took my eyes off the prize at times. I can make plenty of excuses, but I know that each excuse really comes down to priorities.

So now I wonder, how was your week, and what have you done to prioritize the next one even better? If you have any ideas for the rest of us, please share your comments. If you have a helpful tip, or a link to a helpful tip, please share your comments with the rest of us guilty time-wasters.

Thank you for granting me your time today. I know how precious it is. I’m glad you spent this moment to consider how easy it is to waste.

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately, and I want to share a link that helped push me to share my thoughts with you. It is an article by my crusty, foul-mouthed, and respected peer, Erika Napoletano titled “The Part Where I Kick Your Ass“. Maybe you need your ass kicked, too. 😉

The next time you catch yourself in a loss for time, consider how you are using it. Are you making a list of priorities? Are you following a defined plan? Are you doing what it takes to use your time efficiently, or are you just making flimsy excuses like most people?

You may think I should give you a bunch of resources to free up your time. There are many good ideas in my blog archive, but most importantly, you must first recognize that there is a flaw before you can fix it.

Photo Credit:
it’s being time by Gisela Giardino via Flickr

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Marketing and Brand Consistency: Check Your Gargoyles

Check Your Branding Gargoyles

Your gargoyles say more about your brand than you may think. They are your front line. If your marketing doesn’t match, you’re asking for trouble.

I recently responded to a blog article written by Kay Ross, who wrote about the faces we put forward in a marketing message. Kay’s article is titled “In Your Marketing, To Thine Own Self Be True“, and it reminded me of many observations I have made about the overall feel of companies during my career, and personal encounters.

That “feel” of a company is what makes up a brand, and when it’s done well it involves every aspect of the company, and extends far beyond the marketing department. I want to share some thoughts about your brand, and I believe you will be able to relate to this from both a consumer and business viewpoint.

The topic which was addressed in Kay’s blog came from one of her subscribers who asked the question as follows: “Which is more important when communicating with your audience: say things you really want to say, or say things that people want to hear?”

Should there really be such a disparity between the two? If the marketing is reaching the appropriate audience, it should not have to be one or the other. The way I interpreted this question, it led me to imagine the question as whether it is acceptable to fake it in your marketing. If you know my brand at all, you can place your bets now about where I stand.

Let Them Love You, But Realize You Cannot Force Them

As I read that question, I immediately thought of something I once wrote titled “Polarize Your Audience and Stop Making Everybody Happy“. In that piece, I used examples of companies like Apple and Google, who understand their brand enough to stand behind it.

You will never make everybody love you – so don’t even try. Trying to be everything to everybody will only serve to dilute your brand integrity and create a “wishy-washy” brand message. People don’t like that in politics, and they don’t like it elsewhere, either. That doesn’t mean ignoring anyone or treating them badly … but you should realize there is always a good, better, and best customer for any company.

Instead of creating a false brand loyalty, I suggest looking closer for the ones who will find a connection with your brand, before you assume you should re-brand. You’ve got one brand to work with, so you should understand it well, and embrace it. Kay and I agree that it is important to know what you are about, and stick with it. I think most people would agree with that point, once they give it a little consideration.

Don’t Make it “Us Versus Them” … Make it “Us With Them”

Many companies struggle to strike a perfect balance between what others want from them, and what they are willing and capable of delivering. This means there is a gap between the two parties – the company and the consumer. In most cases, there is a huge gap, and it’s why you would be wasting your time to try and sell me knitting needles. This is exactly why it is extremely important for any company offering anything to anybody to realize the message I shared in an article titled ““Everybody” is Not Your Target Market!” Please feel free to read that thought provoking piece. This one will still be here when you get back.

Gaps Between Companies and Consumers

Shrinking that gap between the company and consumers is extremely important, but try to imagine it like another kind of relationship for a moment. When I was a single guy, I tried to make myself more attractive to ladies – but not just any ladies. I wanted a certain type who would want what I offered and understand my vision. I could have let it change me completely, but wouldn’t that eventually fail?

Try a Friendlier Gargoyle

I wanted the type who fit my offer just right. If I faked who I was, it would have potentially led me down a really ugly path of disillusioned ladies – ladies who would warn the other ladies – and it could have left me single even longer.

I fixed my hair just right, I shaved extra close, and I adapted to things like closing the bathroom door. That’s right – when I met my wife, Peggy, I would close the bathroom door if I needed to stink the place up. That doesn’t mean I’d go out of my way to hide the fact that I stink the place up sometimes … I just kept it a bit more courteous. I didn’t fart at the dinner table, either … I waited until we made it out the restaurant door.

Now imagine if I just held it until she left. Can you imagine how much gas and poo I would have held back? Then imagine if she had married me for all my amazing (but fake) charm. I mean, can you imagine finding a non-pooing, non-gaseous guy? She would have surely loved me even more, but what if I had sealed the deal based on that fakeness?

Wouldn’t she be disappointed later, when she found out that I can curl the bathroom paint? Wouldn’t she have really hated it once she realized that each of our three babies poo, too?

Now put that in terms of a company brand message. Even pooing companies with gas are charming and “perfect” to somebody. In the case of marketing, that usually means a lot of people. By reaching that perfect segment, you can encounter something I’ve said many times, and that is as follows:

I don’t try to please everybody, and that pleases some people very much.

Perception Shaping Versus Waiting to Poo

Shaping the perception of consumers is important, but letting your integrity slip just to tell them what they want to hear is not the right answer. I believe that each and every company can do a better job of closing the gap between the company and their ideal consumer. It requires research and paying close attention, and when companies can get out of their own way, that market research and paying attention serves them very well. What I refuse to advocate in is glazing over the things that make the company what it is, and creating a false perception that can later be discovered as such.

In the article by Kay Ross, she cited something I said in a piece titled “Great Marketing is Not About You … Hogwash!” In that article, I explained ways that is really is about you, and that the people of an organization are what makes it special.

About Those Gargoyles …

I want to share what I wrote in my response to Kay’s article. I’ll paraphrase, but I invite you to see her original article and the comments there, as well.

Is This Your Gargoyle?

My take-off, based on the article, was to address how company cultures spread throughout the company, and how valuable or destructive that can be. I based it on things I have seen over a long period of time, as a marketing consultant, a corporate officer, and a consumer. I suspect you can find instances where something similar has created an impression with you, about a company.

In my experience, if a company has a mean gargoyle as their gatekeeper, it is easy to expect it throughout the company. On the other hand, if that gargoyle is helpful and friendly, it is often a sign of the company’s culture – their brand. If it is faked in the marketing, it becomes obvious very quickly.

You can experience this right now, by simply considering how you feel about any given restaurant, retail store, doctor’s office, cellular provider, or any other brand experience you’ve had. Somebody set the brand feel in motion from the very start. Whether that came directly from the marketing department or elsewhere, it begins to forge your view of the company. If that brand message is inconsistent with your experience, it is easy to become very critical of the company. It can also become very enticing to share that feeling with others. Thus, it is wise to know your brand and not waiver from it.

Here is my longer answer, based on Kay’s blog:

I believe that the personality of a company shows through very clearly, and in many ways. If you try to cover it with a veil, it only serves a wasteful agenda, and I’ll get to that, but I’ll give an example first.

I very recently reached out to the senior vice president and CMO of a large and extraordinarily visible corporation. When I called for a follow-up and reached his assistant, I was met with a very friendly and helpful demeanor from his personal “gargoyle”.

In decades of dealing with everything from large corporations to small “mom and pop” companies, I have always found a strong similarity in the attitudes of people across a whole company … from top to bottom, and side to side. People adapt to their companies, and you can tell a lot about the company by how those people treat you.

Sure, it’s easy to discount the fact that the first impression sets an expected tone, which it does, but I find it to be true that the culture of a company spreads to all edges of the organization, and can seldom be faked very well.

Since I’m not citing broad statistics (although I could), you may imagine that I’m just imagining this, but consider your own experiences for a clearer picture.

When you look at it in this way, doesn’t it make good sense to show off the true culture of the company, rather than faking it? Although it can often influence products or services, that culture does not exist within the products or the services themselves. It exists in the people, and it becomes integrated across the company. It strongly influences their brand, regardless of what their marketing portrays.

When I say that trying to cover it up only serves a wasteful agenda, I look at it like this: If your company is not likable, and people don’t feel good about it, the company will probably never be able to buy enough faceless and nameless advertisements to make up for the cost of lost opportunities.

Without the people, a company is just a hollow shell. That goes for all shapes and sizes of companies. They may last a long time, but they seldom realize extraordinary growth and the full potential of their market.

In summary, please consider this: If you stray from the things which make up your brand just to make your marketing appealing, it is best to revisit those gargoyles and get them in shape, first.

The value of “human collateral” should not be neglected. The people within your organization make up a huge portion of the brand, and it is nearly impossible to convincingly change it without changing the people, themselves.

If you project a brand message that is not consistent with the consumer’s experience, they will see through it. When they do, the outcome is not favorable, it is best to get it right from the beginning.

Photo Credit:
Gargoyle by Jeff Egnaczyk via Flickr
Friendly Gargoyle by Michael Napoleon via Flickr
Scary Gargoyle by Andrew Barden via Flickr

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Content Curator Wanted: Salary Commensurate With Zero

I’ll give you the bottom line, right up front. In business, if you are doing something that you would never pay somebody else to do, stop it!

I think this should be obvious, but then, obvious is not so obvious, and common sense is not so common. That is the main emphasis of this article, so if you decide to stop here without further consideration, you’ve got the bulk of the benefit.

This is not just about content curation, or any one specific tactic that somebody told you may be a good practice for your marketing goals … this is about all of them. If there is something you are doing in your business pursuits, but you would never in a million years see the value in hiring somebody to do it for you, stop doing it, and get back to doing things that actually build your business.

Did you know this?: After being decapitated, a chicken’s body is still animated enough to run around and look alive. Yes, that’s fine for chickens, but not so great for marketing.

I may sound like I just picked on “Content Curators”, meaning those people who expend their energy to bring you the latest and greatest news and information, but that is just an easy example to make this point. It is also a very common way to avoid the realities of business, and the limitations of time.

Who doesn’t love that person who generously takes time from their day to find interesting things to share with us? We all love that, and I, for one, am grateful for them. As a group, they have cumulatively helped to make my words, my industry knowledge, and my unique mind-spin very popular. I am sincerely very grateful and humbled by that. At the same time, I think it is important to note that many of those people who do it exceptionally well, and provide that extended filter of what is worthwhile, interesting, or useful, are generally doing it out of generosity. They are not getting paid for it. In most cases, not even a little bit. In fact, it can cost them (or you) a whole lot of time.

If you are curating content with the idea of it being a useful business tactic, I want to share reasons to reconsider your strategy about social media sharing and why you do it. Where it applies to your own marketing strategy, it is at least worth a momentary “think-over”.

I understand the thought that if you tweet, facebook, and share enough great ideas and information, it will make your name more prominent in people’s social media information backlog, but is it useful to you or not? Have you considered whether it may cause people to tune you out for the excessive noise it produces? Would you hire somebody else to do that for you, and would you consider it a valuable asset to your business? Would somebody ever, in a squillion years, pay you to receive the updates you curate? Unless you are a major news agency, the answer is “probably not” … and even if you are, the answer is “probably not”. How much would you be willing to pay to receive the content curation you provide?

Look, I really do have a good understanding of the mindset that if you share something, others will be more likely to share what you have to say. I wrote about it, and if you really want to curate something popular, have a look at what I said about “Social Media and The Absurdity of Implied Reciprocity“. To put it mildly, I’d suggest you don’t hang your hat on that strategy.

I also offer some really good insights about “Social Media Popularity Addiction and Why I Quit“. The truth is that although many people find it very alluring to share a whole bunch of industry information with the notion that if they are sharing enough outside information, it will be easier to sneak their call-to-action in there so they don’t feel too “self-promoting”. I get this. If all you are doing is promoting your own thoughts or ideas, people may see you as “The D Word“, but there is an even worse option … being a headless chicken without a strategy.

Another popular notion is that by sharing good information and ideas, it may help somebody else to view you as more informed or knowledgeable about a given topic. That’s fine, and it can be very useful to share ideas to express your approval (or disapproval) but what about content creation? Wouldn’t creating an idea provide an even better yardstick of what you know, or what you think?

What I want to caution here is the downside of performing tasks without using forethought and common sense. If you think it will be a huge business asset to keep doing things which you would never pay somebody else to do, take a deep breath, sit down, think clearly, and question whether you are really spending your time productively.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t share what others have to say. Not at all, and there are some great ideas out there which should be shared. I am just suggesting to think it over before you do, and consider how much time you expend with such things. I’m also not saying you shouldn’t be doing each and every thing you are doing in your marketing, public relations, or networking. I am mostly just suggesting that you rethink it to better define where your assets and liabilities each lie. You may be right, or you may be wrong, but in either case, you should be cognizant.

Here is are two acid tests to consider:

A.) Would you pay somebody else to do the things you are doing to promote your business?
B.) Would somebody else pay you to do the things you are doing to promote your business?

If you are unsure, or these questions hit a nerve, it is probably time to readjust things.

Photo Credit:
Chicken by Leif K-Brooks via Flickr

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Great Marketing is Not About You … Hogwash!

I must have heard nearly every conceivable absurd notion a person can come up with when it comes to marketing. There are a lot, and I have heard some really bad ideas about marketing practices. One silly thing I encounter a lot is when people say “It’s not about you.” A few people may really know what others mean when they say this, but I think the majority of people are just giving you hogwash.

It seems to me that this message has been mutated in so many ways that it has actually become a scare tactic against marketing, rather than good advice.

If you hear people say “It’s not about you”, you should never accept that as a reason to hide who you are, what you stand for, and what you are seeking, only to sneak it in once in a while. Tragically, I believe that is the way many people have taken this message, and it is often completely contrary to effective marketing.

Stop Letting Knuckleheads Control Your Marketing Assets

When you think of your social media marketing, and especially blogging, let’s consider some things. It is a whole lot easier to spread a message if it is useful and interesting to others, rather than just a sales pitch. That should be obvious. If you are just telling people how awesome you are without relating it to how it benefits them, your ship is sunk. Nobody wants to hear about that, and nobody wants to talk about that.

It is comparatively easy to spread a genuinely useful message far, and spread it wide. When it is done just right, it can get a lot of people talking about it, and you may even benefit from many other websites linking to it. This is also a primary factor to being listed better in search engines. It works in perfect synergy, and it grows like a downhill snowball. It all looks shiny and grand, right?

Here’s the kicker: When something is implicitly “not about you”, it comes with a big risk of people never knowing you, your brand message, or your call-to-action (what you want for them to do next). Until you show them who you are, and what your call to action includes, it is just guesswork for them, and missed opportunities for business.

If you think that being useful and interesting means you should carefully hide your call-to-action … the thing that actually provides benefit to your business … then why are you doing it at all? Who ever suggested that you should be playing Mother Teresa and Gandhi with your marketing assets? If somebody suggested that, perhaps you should give them a big hearty slap.

Finding Your Marketing Balance

There must be a good balance to your efforts, and in that balance is where much of your success is locked up like Fort Knox.

You can take the approach that those useful things you do on your blog or social networks will make up an overall better presence for your brand, and this is very true. It is a very important principle in online marketing. At the same time, you cannot expect people to go hunting through pages of information just to discover how to pay your company a profit. They won’t do it! No, they really won’t … and the numbers show the truth! This means you must create a good balance, and that balance should include letting them know what it is that keeps you in business so you will be there when they come back for more.

Sure, it is fine to give the whole world a nice pat on the bottom and a kiss on the brow, but if you are doing something valuable for others, you deserve the benefit of growing your business for it.

Where is The Voice of Your Brand?

When it comes to market research and learning who will give your brand a second glance, it is not about your company or yourself. It is about them … your market … the people who will become your loyal customers and brand advocates. With this information, it becomes about you and them, and where the two parties meet in the middle and do business.

Beyond the research, when it comes to building a brand, you would be foolish to invest in the marketing hogwash that “it’s not about you”. Yes, it is about you, but with some checks and balances. The balance comes somewhere between the value you provide, and the value you ask for, so you need to get that part right.

If the people you are reaching are the right audience, they want to hear from you, and they want to know what you’re all about … whether you represent a company or an individual. That sense of “You” is what they connect with, and what gives them the confidence in who they are considering doing business with.

I’ll explain this in real and vivid terms, and I stand behind this. First, I’ll give you a bit of background, and then I’ll explain the direct benefits to you. I hope you can apply this to your business.

I’ve been in marketing my entire adult life. I have provided marketing consulting and training to successful companies when I was as young as 15 years old. I was raised into it by some brilliant parents, and they taught me a lot. They mentored me.

I was actually raised for my job, much like the six year old girl playing piano in the video above was raised to be a concert pianist. I was fed all of the best books about marketing, success, and motivation. I was taken to conferences of all types and sizes. I was hidden behind phone lines and fax machines to work with clients who simply wouldn’t understand it if they knew their new marketing campaign was largely being constructed by a kid.

I was on a stage talking to people about marketing before I was old enough for a driver’s license. Back then, I could barely wait to be 40, so people could take me more seriously. Today, as I approach 40 a couple months away, I question whether that was my best goal. In any case, I suppose that turning 40 with 25 years of marketing experience and business ownership has its upsides.

I grew up a lot faster than I would ever wish for my children, but I had good mentoring for this career. My parent-mentors trained me to understand how to make something marketable, and how to see markets as systems. That means seeing more than just “the dots”, but rather being able to connect the dots between companies and their consumers. I don’t know why I was raised that way, but my parents had their reasons, and must have seen something in me.

Ten years after I left school at 15, I was able to retire early, as a 25 year old “know-it-all”. Some years later, I went back to work and merged two companies and grew them to the pinnacle of the wholesale Internet services industry. I have also created similar success for clients who had the fortitude and desire to grow their companies, and called me to build and manage their marketing strategies.

That’s a small portion of my career history. I am not ashamed to tell you, nor afraid that it offends you. That does not make me dis-interesting to the right people, and it does not make this all about me, either. If somebody is dis-interested in my career history and qualifications in marketing, they may be the type who will listen to the first slick-talker to tell them what they want to hear. I’m not that guy, and I have a robust brand message that confirms it. I am a guy who strongly understands that it takes willingness to make sacrifices in order to build a successful company … and my clients do, too.

Here’s How You Benefit Knowing This

I offer a lot of reliable information on this blog, the majority of which is based on things I have witnessed in my career. The benefit to you of knowing about my history, who I am, and what I’m about is that you may have more confidence in the things I write. If you have good reasons to trust my integrity, you can see that my efforts are intended to be helpful, and not based on hype.

You can learn a whole lot about my industry, and gain a lot of useful information on this blog … and I provide it for free! If you want the other 99.7 percent, and you want it implemented exceptionally well, I welcome you to contact me to see if we’re a good match. That’s what I’m paid for, and I’m not a bit apprehensive to ask for your business.

Are you ready? If so, click here!

Oh, but there is another point I want to make about one of those early lessons I learned in marketing … just to drive the point home.

The Lessons of Two Ears and One Mouth

Early in my marketing career, I received constant reminders of why I was born with two ears but only one mouth. That is a really tough lesson for most kids to master … and some never do. They explained that it was because I should be listening twice as much as I talk. Of course, a critical part of marketing is to listen to the customers. That’s how you come to understand them, and their desires. It is critical, and it is what market research is for.

I think this is the part where the notion that “it’s not about you” totally confounds a lot of people.

Another lesson I learned that was equally valuable is that when people are considering a purchase, they also appreciate a story of how well the product or service worked for others … or how it could work for them. In order for them to become a customer, they must envision having whatever it is you are offering for sale, and they must envision it with a favorable outcome.

This means, you must be more than just a listener. You also need to know how to tell a story. Sometimes it is a story of a customer, your product, your brand, or your experience, but that’s what people connect with and understand. If you have a story from your experience in business, tell it. Yes, it is about you, and that is a good thing! That is a whole lot better than letting people guess, and it is a lot more genuine than just telling somebody how great your product or service is. That piece of “you” is what becomes valuable … so in this sense, I’d say yes … it is about you!

A question that sticks with me is this: “Would you rather be an interested introvert or an interesting extrovert?” I think we all want to be a little of both, but if you put this in terms of a customer and a seller, I would have to say that I want them to be interested and I want to be interesting. That doesn’t mean turning off the listening, but it does mean you’ve got to do some talking.

People don’t want to hear your hyperbole, but they do want to hear what makes you who you are. If you hide that because somebody told you “it’s not about you”, then you are covering up your best asset. When it comes down to actually doing business, those things about you are what makes up a large portion of their decision.

Just as there are more followers than there are leaders, I believe there are a lot more introverts in the world than there are extroverts. This may be partially because in order to be an extrovert, you put yourself out there on a limb. You are taking a risk to be the one doing the talking. Don’t worry though, because even if you try really hard, you will never make everybody like you … and it is counterproductive to even try.

I say go for it … talk about yourself enough so we can know who you are and what you stand for. If you don’t, all that your would-be customers have to base their buying decisions on is facts and figures. Unless you are the best and the cheapest, all at once, somebody else can nearly always beat you out on at least one of those measures.

That’s my piece. It’s your turn, and it’s all about you, now. Go ahead and add your comments to tell me I’m wrong.

Photo Credit:
Pig by dullhunk via Flickr

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Social Media Popularity Addiction and Why I Quit

Illicit Drugs Are Popular, But Still Illicit

I believe the popularity addiction that many people suffer from in social media is downright pathetic. I’m going to tell you, in plain business terms, why I quit putting that drug in my bloodstream and stopped caring about appearances of popularity, having a squillion followers, or stressing about having the highest Klout score. In short, it is because those things aren’t what pays the bills, and they can even be quite destructive pursuits.

If you will look at it rationally, for just a moment, I’ll show you why the fashionable illusion of popularity fails the test of real business value. If you are ready to breathe a sigh of relief, you may want to pay attention and join me on the road to recovery.

For the most part, you probably don’t follow people on Twitter or “Like” them on Facebook because you’re planning to do business with them. Sometimes, perhaps, but how often? Really, how often do you use that long list of people you are connected to as a reminder for your shopping list?

When you need to pick up something on your next shopping venture, you don’t go and see who you’re following to decide what to buy or who to buy from. No you don’t! OK, maybe you do … but if that’s the case, you are in a very small minority. If you buy from them, it is likely because they built a positive brand image, and became more memorable.

Then why is it that so many people out to sell something have it in their head that other people are using social media for formulating their shopping list? They aren’t thinking in rational human terms … that’s why! They are thinking in terms of appearances and what may make them look more important or popular, rather than building a sustainable brand recognition. I guess that must make sense to some people, but not the successful ones … not for the ones with two brain cells to rub together.

Let me explain it like this: If you saw only 426 people following Subway Restaurants on Twitter, it probably wouldn’t alter your thoughts about buying a Subway sandwich. You buy from them because they make an awesome sandwich, and you’ve heard of them because they built their brand based on those awesome sandwiches. That is also why they don’t have 426 Twitter followers … they have 184,847. They produced something people want, and they made it memorable.

Conversely, if you see that a small real estate firm has 184,847 Facebook fans, it doesn’t mean they’ve got a house you want … or that they will be any better at selling your house. In fact, it may mean they are playing the popularity game, and prioritizing poorly.

People often get this all mixed up and think the popularity is what creates success, while the opposite is true. It works the other way around … successful branding creates the popularity. If you try to fake it or shortcut it, you will only deceive yourself … and I can back it up with facts, figures, and common sense.

You can lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself. If you try lying to me, I’ll break out the real numbers. Try this on for size: Here is a recent snapshot of a random hundred people who followed me on Twitter, along with the results I put together from over 1,000 tweets of my previous ten blog articles. See “Twitter in Numbers: Marginal, Not Magical“. Click it and read up if you really want the truth.

Perhaps too many people latched onto the fallacy of “more is better”, or the crazy idea that social media marketing is just about the networking … but it’s not!

The Psychology of Social Media Popularity

Nobody is fully immune to the notion that a perception of popularity will somehow serve them. I’ve even heard it from people who have absolutely no business case to have a big audience. When I have asked people about it, they are often confused by why I think it is unimportant. A small number of them are honest enough to admit that they want the popularity because it makes them feel good … and it makes them feel more productive, or more important.

In itself, a Twitter follower or a Facebook fan or friend is a terribly weak way to measure your brand’s love, but I see it all the time. I have heard many instances of companies wanting to know how much it will cost to acquire “X” number of friends, fans, followers, and other useless measures. A much smaller number is asking how to breathe awesomeness into their brand and earn faithful brand advocates and customers.

Something those who participate in the popularity contest are reluctant to admit is that more social media connections alone does not actually equal true popularity, or value. What it can do, however, is make them feel like they are making progress, even when there is no true progress at all. It often just means those connections had the same psychological need for validation, and they are participating in the absurdity of implied reciprocity. These people are completely confusing cause and affect, and they are wasting precious resources, like time and money.

The hope is often to have hundreds of people tweeting and facebooking something about them. That is a different kind of popularity, and it means your message is spreading. I don’t begrudge anybody for that, and I won’t call them a fool. In fact, it is just great! That may actually have value, and it may land the right person to become a customer. It is a sign of doing something well. That kind of popularity is often due to legitimate reasons.

Many people think the perception of popularity is really important, but try for a moment to believe me that it is wildly overrated. Maybe you think a large faux-following will help your business, but what will really matter is who they are and how they feel about your brand.

Look at how you use social media, and then consider why you think everybody else is so different. Unless you are doing something totally different, and awesome, it really seems arrogant to believe that they are paying more attention to you than you are them.

What's your social media addiction, and is it time for an intervention?

You may find a number of people or companies that you find interesting, but don’t tell me for a second that you found thousands of people you really intend to keep up with and give attention to what they have to say. It simply doesn’t work that way. Have you ever heard of Dunbar’s Number? It works both ways, and unless those people are really interested in you, it is worthless. For the truth, just picture yourself as one of those random names or faces you see as you look at who you are “following” or “liking”. Do you really pay attention to them? Do you really think they are paying attention to you?

The Little Company That Couldn’t

I want you to imagine the little company who couldn’t. They set out to find popularity, and they paid a “social media expert” to help them amass an audience, but they wanted it done quickly and at a low cost. The social media expert could be blamed (and should rightfully be hung by the short hairs) for delivering them a group of totally disinterested people to follow them on Twitter and “Like” their Facebook page. The thing is, it is exactly what the company asked for, and they refused to see it any other way. It was what they were sure would work, and it was all they were striving for. They dictated exactly what they wanted, and now they’ve got an untargeted audience.

Months later, they wonder why they are still not seeing a return on their social media investment. They have a huge audience, but those people just aren’t rushing the gates to buy their stuff. It is often because they were too concerned by the cost of time, money, and hard work that they never questioned the return. As the company resentfully struggles with “What in the heck is wrong with those people?!”, the competition is doing great.

The competition saw the value of a strategy, and they stopped trying to be like everybody else. The competition realized that having a disinterested group of people to follow them, “Like” them, and pad their egotistical desires for appearance without substance will not be worth a box of frog toenails if they are the wrong audience.

Here’s My Theory on The Value of Popularity

I guess should know a little about this … I have a metric squillion readers of my blog, and a reasonably sizable following across my social networks. I don’t need, nor want everybody to like me, love me, or follow me. I don’t concern myself with a bigger audience, because I would rather focus on the right people, and give them something they want … something useful. That’s why the audience is there in the first place!

Without a focus on people’s interests, and doing something worthwhile, it has very little business value. I guess you could say that I am reasonably popular, but I am still working on the awesome factor, every day. That matters a whole lot more to my business and personal pursuits than just looking popular.

Even with a great audience, it still requires a lot of effort. The most valuable audience is often the smallest target of all.

Since I know you’re curious, I’ll share what my intended audience looks like. Maybe this will work for you, too. In my case, I seek people who understand the value difference between doing something, and doing something well. I like to help them visualize the difference. When it comes to the way it all helps my business, it is because I seek people with enough faith in their company to become my next marketing client. It is a small target, indeed, but a falsely inflated audience is not how I intend to reach them.

No, not at all. I reach my best audience by creating something valuable enough to you that you feel confident to pick up the phone and call me, recommend me to your CEO as a consultant on your next marketing campaign, share my knowledge with somebody else who will find it useful, or otherwise appreciate my work enough that you help the right clients find me. That is real social media business (as opposed to monkey business), and it is far more important to me than a popularity contest.

That’s my take on the subject. What do you have to say about it?

Photo Credits:
Heroin and Syringe by Michael Velardo via Flickr
“Red Face” sells? by Daniel Axelson via Flickr
Héroïne by Alexandre Duret-Lutz via Flickr

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