“Dazzle them with brilliance or baffle them with B.S.”
It was a favorite chant of the creative group in a former ad agency.
Much of social media marketing articles, blogs and webinars – particularly from the newly minted experts – involves more dazzling with jargon (or B.S.) and less about how it really works. And the truth is, social media really works! Very well. But too many social media practitioners today are adapt at throwing out KPIs, click attribution, and dark posts but cannot relate a basic social media strategy to overall sales or brand objectives.
GRM has been in social media from the start, but we were building brands through marketing for years prior to social media being invented. We understand the fundamentals of building a category-leading brand that endures. Social media is a fantastic and very efficient marketing tool. But, like advertising, sales promotion, product development, media relations et al, it works best as part of an integrated strategic program designed to achieve sales goals and enhance your brand.
Next time jargon starts filling the room, maybe ask a few questions … “how does <insert jargon> fit into our sales needs?” “How does <Insert jargon> help us extend and enhance our customer and prospect experience and expectations?” “Do you have an example of building sales and customers through social media?” If you need a glossary (or translator) to understand their reports or presentations, you probably need a new social media team.
Social media should be an important part of your overall marketing program. But why should you need to redesign your measures and language to fit social media? Most CMOs don’t. So, for many businesses, social media sort of dangles out there – they know it is something they need to do, but don’t have a clear path on how it works with the other sales and marketing initiatives and how to compare it. A good litmus test: can your social media team persuasively explain what their program does for your company to your CFO, CEO, COO and HR VP?
Social media should be fit to your program – your plans, your goals, your audiences. It is no longer an outlier – something companies do but are not able to relate to the C-suite. A plan with clear objectives, realistic strategies not simply on how to achieve social objectives, but how social augments/supports and fills gaps in your overall communications and sales program. Social is both a communications/public relations tool, an advertising tool and a sales development tool. It is a most efficient medium in that respect and needs to be duly accounted for. Don’t accept the jargon (or the B.S.).