The Growing Debate over Twitter & Social Media
filed in Millennial Marketing, Social Media, Thought Leadership on Mar.09, 2009
There is a growing debate concerning the social media space. While the cognoscenti are touting their use of Twitter, Digg, Friend Feed and other social media tools, there are strong voices of skepticism labeling those medium as unproven business tools at best, time-wasting black holes at worst. The schism could be no more than manifestation of a marketing generation gap. Still, when I hear more than one of my respected peers with 30 years in Direct Marketing raise the question, I have to pause and consider both sides of the story.
A blog post from Response Agency framed the debate: “… Some marketers seem compelled to jump on every new high tech toy, and they insist that you be so compelled as well. Your company, they say, must send text messages, must be on Facebook and LinkedIn, and now must be on Twitter……Fine, except I have yet to see evidence that any of these toys produce sales at all, much less in a cost-effective manner. Meanwhile, I see plenty of evidence that they consume valuable time — lots of it. Time that you could have spent working. Maybe even accomplishing something productive.”
My response was to comment “The opportunity to waste time in unprofitable pursuits is always present. Since I approach these venues with my business hat on, I invest my time to build my network and to increase my visibility and personal brand. It is working……with Twitter I have encountered some strong people and valuable resources. Don’t give up on the digital just yet!”
My friend softened a bit in his reply: “If there is evidence that the social media are an effective business-building tool as measured at the cash register, I’m interested……Either way, I suspect you would agree with my two, earlier key objections: (1) That the social media are yet unproven as a selling tool; and (2) that there is great potential to waste time on them.”
If traditional Direct Marketers were to emulate Alan Greenspan, they would exclaim that the market regards the potential of Social Media with “Irrational Exuberance“. Just as I was beginning to consider the naysayers with more sincerity, I sat in on a “Twebinar“today hosted by Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) and Awareness Networks (@bostonmike). The presentation can be found at the Awareness Inc. site and the results will blow you away.
Among many other examples, I learned that Marriott Hotels generated over $4 Million in room reservations via a link from Bill Marriott’s blog. Now that is called ROI in any language. The debate will continue for a while, but CMO’s are already considering Social Media as an increasingly valid element of their marketing mix. Be watchful, listen and learn. Everyone else is!
March 10th, 2009 on 4:02 pm
SMM FTW!
March 11th, 2009 on 12:44 pm
I can certainly relate to the ability to waste huge amount of time on social networking. I’m still at the point of evaluating effectiveness, but am wondering how we even go about measuring results? We never know when a comment or connection we made may be dormant for a long time and then surface days, weeks or months later. Can we put out articles that provide thought, awareness, even change? And also have that show up on the balance sheet?
Thanks for the connection the the Awareness Inc…hoping to be blown away.
Carolyn, BioElectric Shield
March 13th, 2009 on 4:41 pm
Darn that Bill Hanifin. Ever the gentleman, he graciously concedes, “When I hear more than one of my respected peers with 30 years in Direct Marketing raise the question, I have to pause and consider both sides of the story.” Thus he raises the fairness bar, and I willingly reciprocate. I, too, concede that when someone whom I regard so highly sticks to his guns, I had better take another, deeper look.
And so I shall as the evidence arrives. But here’s the rub. As yet we have no evidence. What we have are anecdotes. As scientist Frank Sulloway put it, “Anecdotes do not make a science. Ten anecdotes are no better than one, and a hundred anecdotes are no better than ten.”
Here is the evidence that I will look for: (1) Standards of performance, agreed upon before testing is conducted. This helps avoid the trap of justifying a practice after the fact based upon benefits no one established as objectives. Such benefits must be tested in their own right. (2) A series of controlled tests that produce a documented, positive, predictive result.
It’s important to admit something here. Social media tools are new. The absence of controlled tests, and/or the presence of controlled tests that fail to produce positive results, do not prove that the social media are useless. They may simply indicate that we haven’t yet figured out how to use them to draw a consistent return.
But we must also be careful not to take isolated cases, like the Marriott case, as proof of efficacy. The Marriott case is indeed suggestive. But only upon attaining consistent, predictive results for a valid sample of other companies using the same technique can we call it conclusive. The reason we know that a direct response effort with an incentive offer will vastly outperform an effort without one is that we have repeatedly tested both, and the results are overwhelmingly consistent. We don’t have results of that kind for the social media—yet. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Just hasn’t happened yet.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the social media, that there is no valid marketing use for them, or that we shouldn’t test them. What I am suggesting is that we should test the social media the same way direct marketers test any other medium and technique. If we find a way to wring predictive results from them, I won’t hesitate to champion them.
To return to my original point: Beware spending time with online tools and telling yourself that you’re doing marketing when you may, in fact, be wasting time. You might be connecting with lots of folks, creating oodles of dialog, and getting lots hits. But are you selling anything? And, how much would you have sold in that same amount of time had you picked up the phone, or grabbed your briefcase and knocked on a few non-virtual doors instead of playing online?
Steve Cuno
Chairman
RESPONSE Agency
Steve@ResponseAgency.com