Social media is a waste of time

Social Media Marketing
Is a Waste
of Time
State of Search 2014 @marktraphagen
Unless…

@augieray | stonet.co/1t2TSSD
This presentation is (in part) a response to an article by Augie Ray.

People trust brand social media posts
70% less than they do information
on brand websites
stonet.co/1vhM0UR
Augie cited several gloomy stats about the efficacy of social media marketing for business.

Facebook & Twitter account for
less than 0.2% of
customer acquisitions
stonet.co/1A7gBFL

On Black Friday 2013
a mere 1% of
online sales from social media
stonet.co/1sYokhP

Can you spot the flaw?
But these stats contain a fatal flaw.

They measure only direct results – straight from a social post to a conversion.
That’s like expecting a tricycle to go to the moon.

Three Social Media Marketing
Knots Nots
Let’s look at three things social media marketing does NOT do.

Instant
Trust
Social media posts do NOT build instant trust.

Instant
Acquisition
Social media posts do NOT lead to instant customer acquisition.

Instant
Sales
Social media posts do NOT (typically) lead to instant sales.

Social media marketing is not instant coffee.

Social media marketing is more like slow roasting whole beans.
Takes longer, but can lead to very satisfying results.

…that brands get wrong
about social media marketing
Brands often start social media marketing at the wrong end…

Lets look in on the annual marketing planning meeting at INSIPID.

So….what marketing trend
should we pursue next?

Billboards are hot!

Billboards!Billboards!Billboards!

You’ve sold me! But which
billboards should we be on?

Facebillboard has the most users…

Twitboard is good for posting links…

LinkedBoard if we’re B2B…

Great. Now. Who wants to
write up WHY we should be on
each of those billboards?

Doing social media marketing just because it’s “what you’re supposed to do”
is putting the cart before the horse.

Mother, where do
customers come from?
Before you can convert customers, you have to find them.
Few buying decisions are made on the spur of the moment.

Oh, get leads? Just get leads? Why don't I
strap on my lead helmet and squeeze down
into a lead cannon and fire off into lead land,
where leads grow on little leadies?!
Probably not…

To get converted customers on one end, you’ve got to be planting seeds on the other.
That’s what social media marketing does best.

So if social media marketing doesn’t start with “doing social media,”
where does it start?

You have to start with your BRAND.

1. Brand Values
First, you need to know the core values of your brand.

1. Brand Values
2. Brand UVP
Your brand values help you define your UVP, your Unique Value Proposition.
Your UVP is why people should be your customers, and not your competitor’s.

1. Brand Values
2. Brand UVP
3. Brand Story
Next define your brand’s story. Your brand’s story is how you communicate your brand
via your content and social media in ways that resonate both intellectually and emotionally.

Brand
So understanding your brand leads everything else.

Content
The next step before doing social is developing content that comes out of your brand values,
UVP, and brand story. This is the “meat” for your social campaigns.

Your content is the foundation of your social campaigns.
There has to be some “there” there for people to see.

Brand
Content
So content, led by your brand values, is now in its proper place.

NOW get social!
NOW we are ready to do social marketing!

Brand
Content
Social
Brand values with related content help pull the social wagon in
ways that will be meaningful and connect the right prospects with your brand.

What Social
DOES Give
So what DOES social media marketing do for your brand?

Branding
Social media helps establish the right associations around your brand.

Photo by ROSS HONG KONG - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/27302727@N03 Created with Haiku Deck
Reach
Social media can vastly increase your reach.
Strong ties are the people who already know you well & share you often.

Photo by JeepersMedia - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/39160147@N03 Created with Haiku Deck
Weak ties are people who maybe follow you but don’t know you well (yet).
But don’t ignore them! They are your connections to new audiences.

SEO
Social media reach can lead to the kinds of things that affect search engine rankings.
For example, after some viral SM campaigns our organic traffic went up and stayed up.

SEO
But not in the way you think…
See stonet.co/SocialSEOStudies
That doesn’t mean social directly affects SEO, but it can create opportunities for
things that do, such as people wanting to link to your site content.

Free Labor
And social media can build fans and brand evangelists who work for your brand for free!

The 2 Things
to Remember
In summary, remember these two things:

Brand
Content
Social
Effective social media flows from brand to content to social.

Social media is seed planting for your other marketing to harvest as converted customers.

• www.stonetemple.com
• Sr. Dir. Online Marketing
• 110,000 G+ Followers
• +MarkTraphagen
• @MarkTraphagen
Get this deck at
stonet.co/SMMWaste
THANKS!

Social media is a waste of time

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