There are a lot of things in my line of work as a digital marketing strategist I have found to be very interesting. One of the most interesting things is how business people schedule a digital marketing roadmap session with me and then do nothing but Bitch-n-Moan about how social media is not working for them.
Tough Questions Being Asked
So why do so many business leaders feel social media is a waste of time and money?
From what I have been told is the disgruntlement business owners have with digital marketing comes from what many digital marketing agency do for these businesses by putting the business’ social content and the wrong type of social media in the wrong social platform.
Nearly every business I have talked to over the past three years have the same goal of making a lot of money from the money they invest into their digital marketing. Naturally most of them are not which clicks on the Bitch-N-Moan switch.
Organic Studies Show
My two year ongoing study consist of me personally asking these business people exactly what the digital marketing agency they formally used did that they feel was wasting their money.
The answer nearly every time is…“they felt I ONLY needed to be on Facebook.”
The rest of the answers came from the others who were told “they would be much better off if they spent all of their time on Twitter”. Some of these businesses were following these instructions to the tune of ten’s of thousands of dollars a month. OUCH!
Reality Checks
The Bitch-n-Moan for these business owners started when they look back over the bills for social media services over the past month matched up to the businesses sales reports. Once they get off the floor from the shock of the loses they are experiencing they start the Bitch N Moan,…more bitching than moaning at this point
The question has always been…Why do the majority of Digital Marketing Agency feel Facebook and Twitter are the ONLY places their clients should be? The answer I am given most from the social media houses I know is they have convincing reports showing more people are on these two platforms than the others. What these social media machines cannot answer is..Can you personally or professionally prove it?
From what I found from visiting with many in the of internet marketing area is most companies selling social media services go with whatever they ‘read’ or ‘are have been told by others who they consider experts’ even though none of what they read, or have been told, can be validated..by anyone… that any of the activity in these social platforms will actually produce revenue for a business.
How It Really Works
Sure, most true grit digital marketing nerds can produce a report for you that shows Facebook has a trillion active users. Any of the social networks can hire programers to produce a trillion users accounts just in case you hire a programmer to can run a search of the social network’s database. The mainstream social networks can even have all of the trillion of the users they created appear to be interacting with the content other users on their account post. And,… since all of the big dogs of the online social networks now have stockholders and unknowing investors pouring trillions of dollars into their bank accounts around the world they can even hire millions of people to sign on to their platform and purchase stuff from you. And then demand a refund or will return it for whatever reason. This is not producing anything positive for businesses.
BUT, of course, like you and others, I have no way to prove these social networks am doing all of this. Brilliant game they play, right?
As a result, businesses who are searching for ways to use digital marketing to enhance their revenue horizons run with what the digital marketing agencies who are staffed with less experienced personnel who tells them “according to reports, Facebook has the most people gathered in one place which makes it the BEST place to spend their time”.
Sure, there are many who claim they are getting a tremendous response from Facebook or Twitter, but here is where reality slaps business people in the face. When they drill down into the reports they have produced on how much of the response they are getting turned into enhancing their revenue horizons they cannot make a clear connection. Thus producing a good reason to “Bitch N Moan”.
Got To Get Real
At some point…let’s hope it will be real soon…business people need to understand that only the businesses who sell internet marketing services, tech gadgetry, social media wizardry or other products/services better suited to appeasing the few people who actually are using Facebook and Twitter regularly, will be the only users of these social networks.
What value will these social networks be to their real users once the businesses who are paying these social networks for access to their trillions of users all pull their funding out? Most of the changes Facebook and Twitter have made recently have clearly been forced by their investors.
Predictions from the financial arena report once these changes Facebook and Twitter have made to force their remaining users to see the sponsored ads BEFORE they can see their friends posts will eventually push their once loyal users off the site. As a result their investors are going to call in their notes for their ROI. It is not certain if this happens if Facebook or Twitter will be able to survive. Then what will the businesses who have dumped billions of dollars in setting up long term advertising campaigns on Facebook and Twitter do? Bitch-N-Moan will be their first reaction.
But Wait…There Is More!
The problems the mainstream social networks do to themselves in an effort to appease their stockholders is not the only thing causing business to ask why social media is not working.
The question of who…or WHAT…are the primary users of the internet generally is asked somewhere within all the Bitch-N-Moaning.
Since 2009, the BOT industry…computer programs that perform artificial intelligence task like appearing to be a Real Person…has grown 300%. This means, a very conservative estimate would be that over 75% of the activity and interaction on social networks is performed by BOTs. This would explain clearly why most businesses who get a tremendous amount of response to their social content produce few sales.
There is a Way to Make It Work
There are times when Bitching-N-Moaning will change something, but in the case of social media, sometimes it is best to develop your digital marketing roadmap to be focused more on being found on Google than getting involved with the chest thumping that has become mainstream social content on Facebook and Twitter.
It is estimated that over 90% of internet users go to Google to search for more reliable content. My organic studies concur. What I have found is being primarily on Google+does help businesses’ presents on Google Search. Developing a robust presence on Google Maps also helps. All of which is still relevant to the content being posted on Google+.
So…Why don’t more businesses use Google+?
The fact is there are far more people using Google+ than is being marketed. Unfortunately, Google does not market Google+ like Facebook and Twitter do. The lack of Google endorsing Google+ in anyway doesn’t mean the platform is dead. It is far from it. But it would help get more businesses to use Google+ if they did do some sort of MARKETING…hint hint.
So, hopefully, my sharing of what I know is going on out in La-La-Land will help hold the Bitch-N-Moan to a Dull Roar.
Let me know how I can help.
