Facebook is not a magic wand!

Ok, I was going to talk about some online social media campaigns I really liked, but I decided that I want to rant and get some stuff of my chest instead.

Here it goes.

Just because I like your product does not mean I want to or NEED TO like your Facebook page. I heard a spot on the radio yesterday for Mandarin All You Can Eat Chinese Food Buffet. During the radio commercial, they recommended that people check them out on Facebook and Twitter. For the most part, I think Mandarin’s marketing is spot on and does a great job. Every time I feel like eating myself into a Chinese food induced stupor, Mandarin comes to mind first.

However, just because I like the restaurant does not mean I am going to click their Facebook “like” button or follow them on Twitter. By the small number of people who are listed as official “Likes”, I am not wrong. The big mistake that they make, like many other companies, is using their Social Media strategy as just a repositioning of their regular ad copy.

Since I like the product already, I do not need to be sold on it. I see no need to spend the .1 second it takes for me to hit “Like” on Facebook. Frankly, I do not want to be bombarded with special notices of crab leg specials (Ok I am making myself hungry typing this.)

What Mandarin needs to do is ask themselves about the people who eat at the restaurant. What are their typical interests? One answer is food, but perhaps not just eating it. Maybe they might also be interested in the cultural aspects of Chinese food. How did Kung Pau Chicken get its name? Who was it named after? Where did it originate? Did you know that because of politics during the Cultural Revolution the dish was labeled as politically incorrect. The dish was renamed "fast-fried chicken cubes" (hong bao ji ding) or "chicken cubes with seared chiles" (hu la ji ding) until its political rehabilitation in the 1980s. See there's a story and content around the subject of food.

The answer to all Social Media marketing questions is content, Content, CONTENT.

Advertisers’ Social Media campaigns must give people something that is relevant to their interests, that is interesting and engaging and that ties their online viewing interests into the advertisers’ products or services. A short weekly web series (with a bit of comedy) about the history and preparation of the type of food that the Mandarin serves will do more to build a Social Media community than all the clever analytic study of media trends or search engine ranking logarithms.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Marketing changes, grows, and yet still remains very basic. There is an art and science to it. It is my pet peeve that people seem to focus today more on the science of it and forget about the art (creative) elements. Ad agencies cannot just wave Facebook at something and hope tens of thousands of people will “Like” it so they can then bombard them with repositioned advertising.

End of rant, next time I will look at a brilliant online social media campaign (I am looking at you Sears)

Cheers,
Jon

Social Media is a myth and it doesn't exist!

Hey got your attention, of course it exists, but not in the all encompassing sense that it is often used, and definitely not as some sort of separate entity from marketing.

Let me put it this way, there’s marketing and there’s using social media as a marketing tool. However creating Facebook pages, Tweeting and Blogging isn’t going to do much if all you do is try to use these tools to distribute ad copy or a sales pitch.

I am not going to name names but I see a lot of companies, big corporations at that, who throw up a Facebook page and sit there and scratch their heads as to why it does nothing. A multimillion dollar a year brand with a huge advertising budget and their Facebook page only has 1,500 likes. Are you kidding me?

The problem is that the company knows everyone is on Facebook and Twitter and / or watching hilarious videos of talking dogs and laughing babies on YouTube, so they want to be on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well. They have their agency create pages and channels and buy some clicks, put up some ad copy, or maybe have a contest and then sit back and wonder why they are getting so little traction.

I am sure the deodorant is great and will leave you feeling refreshed (golf clap) but why would a consumer want to SHARE that information with their friends? I mean maybe some of my friends at some point could use that particular brand of deodorant but I am not going to Tweet about it.

(By the way I am NOT talking about Old Spice, their campaign is brilliant.)
https://www.facebook.com/OldSpice

The problem is that Social Media without compelling content is like a washroom without toilet paper, you’re just left sitting there crying for help.

Using social media to its fullest is about telling a story with a narrative that makes the people you need to attract want to share this story with their network of friends through the communication tools of Social Media. You must have the compelling content that works in that space or it’s all for nothing.

My next blog will talk about the divide between ad copy and content and look at what is working out there and emerging trends.

Cheers
Jon