In the past year, many of our clients have told me how they MUST be on Facebook and Twitter.
And I take it they’ve been listening to the ubiquitous “experts”, who all agree: you MUST do these things. So this belief makes me something of a marketing heretic, since my interests are more practical:
Do these services actually generate business and income? Here are my main conclusions:
- While they can’t hurt, most major social media platforms are largely a waste for the time and money that small to mid-sized businesses must devote to them, as they just don’t generate much business – in MOST cases.
- When people are looking to buy goods and services, they (still) GOOGLE them.
- Therefore, the best plan is to have a search-engine optimized site, like that which I’ve provided for you.
- Effective social media plans (like everything else in good marketing) have to be custom-made for specific business models, and most of the social media specialists out there don’t do this. What they do is provide dogmatic, one-size-fits-all approaches that largely waste your money.
With that in mind, I have provided a general consensus on the major social media networks and how they relate to getting you businesses more leads and sales:
YOUTUBE:
- PRO: This is without a doubt the best thing you can do with social media. By producing videos, you have a chance to have videos show up BEFORE the actual search results (!) at the top of the page – if you market them correctly.
- PRO: I have a client who received a LARGE contract because one of their videos was found on YouTube.
- CON: The financial and time investment required to produce good, short, non-cheesy, and useful videos.
YELP / GOOGLE PLACES (LOCAL) / REVIEW SITES:
- PRO: I think it is a good thing to explicitly ask your BEST clients to write reviews for you on Google Local and Yelp. This can only help your local business going forward.
- PRO: Another way to “show up in the search engines” for your own business name – albeit secondhand.
- PRO: Good for businesses that have regular repeat services (Hair cuts, beauty spas) that want to put out specials.
- PRO: Keeps your name in front of your regular customers, much like a billboard.
- PRO: Advertising on Facebook is cheap. However, there is little evidence that this advertising actually yields new business.
- CON: Not great unless you have regular repeat clients.
- CON: I know of NO BUSINESS who has actually generated new business from having a profile.
- CON: Largely a waste of time. Facebook is more of a “place for friends”, not a place for business
- CON: The demographic of people that regularly visit is young. Very few power decision makers with money over 40.
MYSPACE
- No longer used much, but see Facebook conclusions.
TWITTER:
- PRO: Another way to “show up in the search engines” for your own business name – albeit secondhand.
- PRO: Great for celebrities to keep in touch with their teenage fans.
- PRO: Good for businesses with regular repeat customers that want to send out specials to them – for the day.
- PRO: Great for keeping in touch with friends while you’re overthrowing your local dictator.
- CON: Mostly for teen-twenties demo.
- CON: The demographic of people that regularly visit is young. Very few power decision makers with money over 40.
LINKEDIN:
- PRO: Another way to “show up in the search engines” for your own business name – albeit secondhand.
- CON: I know of NO BUSINESS who has actually generated new business from having a profile.
FLICKR:
- PRO: Great for sharing photos
- PRO: Another way to “show up in the search engines” for your own business name – albeit secondhand.
- CON: I know of NO BUSINESS who has actually generated new business from having a profile.
BLOGS / BLOGGER / ALL 3rd PARTY BLOG SITES:
- PRO: Great way to show up for random content you feel like writing about your business. If you feel your business MUST have a blog, actually RECOMMEND doing it via a 3rd party site (not part of your website) like blogger.
- PRO: Helps businesses show for random, unimaginable search terms.
- PRO: Another way to “show up in the search engines” for your own business name – albeit secondhand.
- CON: Not everyone has the time to update a business diary regularly. And you have to update these regularly.
Anyway, I hope this helps you cut some of the hype out there with a healthy dose of reality.
Again, these conclusions are not hard and fast. Every business is different, and some of these things work, some don’t.
There’s also something to be said for the future. Just because some of these sites haven’t quite matured into the reality of actually making a business money, it’s not to say that they won’t in the future. The web, and the world are moving into a more integrated experience, and much like stocks – we don’t care where they’ve been, we care about where they’re going.
