Social Media Evangelists and the Lies They Tell
After sitting in on a presentation by a self-proclaimed “social media evangelist” a friend of mine called to discuss what he had heard. Was it true that websites as we know them would be dead in 18 months? I laughed out loud. 
It’s been 16 months since that conversation and, barring something cataclysmic, websites as we knew them then will continue to exist two months from now and far into the future. So, why do social media evangelists continue to tell lies like this? Giving them the benefit of the doubt we can see that some of it is because they can’t contain their own enthusiasm for this latest phase of the online world. Being a little less generous they’re naive. They think that what works for one works for all. And of course, they’re all making money off their social media evangelicalism and the more companies, small and large, are convinced that social media is the best way to market online the more those selling social media services and expertise stand to gain.
At Dew Point Productions, Inc. we’re not anti social media we’re just pro business. What that comes down to is thinking about each individual business we work with and what will best serve their needs. Working with a musician, author, artist, a company with a new product, we’re going to focus on social media. For many of you in these types of fields there’s no search volume. We’re sorry to say that no one is searching keyword phrases like “the best new author of mysteries.” If you want to sell your latest song, your latest, book get a speaking gig or tell an enthusiastic tech crowd about the greatest new widget they’ve never seen or heard of, you’re going to need to focus on social media.
What about other professions / products? If you’re a professional window cleaner, or plumber or website designer, or any of ten thousand other possibilities is social media going to give you the best roi? Some will tell you of course it is because it’s “free”. Remember we learned this one in ecology there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Every moment you spend promoting your business via social media has a financial cost. We’ve seen people spend hundreds of hours on social media to get a client or sell a few widgets and think that they’ve made a wonderful investment. Not so.
Online advertising is becoming more and more important, but how you advertise, where you spend your advertising dollars and time is going to vary depending on your product, service, and target market. For some folks social media is the only way to go. For others, a mix of social media and search marketing i.e. pay per click campaigns makes the most sense. There are others of you who should be focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
What you don’t want to do is get caught up in the fervor of the moment. Take the time to assess your market, think about how people find services and products like yours. What would you do if you were looking for a business offering your service? Be sure to ask your customers how they found out about you and be sure to track how your visitors got to your site. If you’re looking to be a profitable business, your goal in marketing should be to get the best roi you possibly can, and not to just do what everyone else is doing.
Good advice. Social media has it’s place for sure, but if your goal is to market a product or service online, then traditional Internet advertising will in many cases be far more effective then social media.