Mediaboss Marketing

According to online marketing pioneer Richard Gorman, many brands still fail to understand exactly how social media marketing is best implemented.

New York, New York (PRWEB) February 26, 2013

What these figures show is that, for as much as businesses and brands may invest in social media marketing, and for as much as marketers may say they understand what social media marketing is all about, there is obviously a disconnect, Gorman remarks, in his press statement. The oft-recited rule of social marketing is that it is all about creating an appealing experience for users. Most of us give lip service to this idea, yet these statistics make it clear that most brands dont really do a great job of keeping their social media users coming back for more.

Gorman goes on to highlight an additional point made in the ReadWrite article, which is simply that many corporate social media pages are more about promoting the brand than creating an enticing user experience. It is really no wonder that many brands are languishing, says Gorman. Many corporate social media accounts, particularly for smaller businesses, are still littered with naked appeals for social shares or re-tweets. You dont get social shares by begging for them, though; you get them by creating content that actually makes people want to share it. Again, it is all about focusing on providing for the usernot promoting the brand per se.

Gorman goes on to underscore another sobering statistic found in the ReadWrite study, which is that only about 11 percent of businesses say that their social marketing strategies incorporate insights offered by other business departments. In other words, the marketing team is building these social media accounts without any input from the customer service division, explains Gorman. This is a huge missed opportunity for creating a social space that is more appealing to actual clients; how much more enticing would a social media page be if consumers knew they could have their specific product questions answered there?

ReadWrite affirms this point, noting that more than half of all consumers use the Internet to seek product support or help from other consumers. Smart brands, such as Hewlett Packard, have launched their own social support centers, resulting in multi-million-dollar savings.

The article concludes by encouraging businesses to forgo such common social metrics as likes and buzz, and instead search for more meaningful analytics, such as ways in which their social media campaigns save them money or increase their internal efficiency.

The bottom line is that social media marketing simply does not work when it is all self-promotion, all the time, Gorman explains. If you want online users to keep coming back for more, you have to offer them a user experience that helps them, that addresses their needswhich might mean online support and customer service, and it might mean posting helpful, informative content. The important thing is that the usernot the brand itselfis at the center of these endeavors.

Richard Gorman is a long-time direct response marketing pioneer and a social media enthusiast.

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Consumer Alert: Richard Gorman Indicts Dangerous Social Marketing Blunders