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Topic: Social Enterprise

Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

Summary: Businesses are rushing into social media but is that the right place to sell their products?

Tom Foremski

By for Tom Foremski: IMHO |

When it comes to corporate use of social media I have problems with the use of the word "social" because it's not accurate. It's not social its all about sales.

When most people use Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, they use it for its social qualities. Yet when corporations use social media, they are using it for commercial purposes.

I see this as an important distinction because it affects how businesses should use social media.

I was moderating a panel earlier today on how businesses can use PR to leverage social media, and Louis Gray said something that was very insightful. He said that people create their Facebook pages in a specific way because that's the way they like it, they are comfortable there. If a business wants to engage with them there, they should do it as if they are a guest in their home.

Social media is great at strenthening ties between people but is it the right place for businesses? All that relationship building and engagement is not because a business wants to get to know Jane or John better, as a friend or relative would, it wants to sell more of its product or service. That's a far different agenda from most people's engagement in social media.

At parties, people will avoid that person that is selling something. Friends that invite their friends to tupperware parties, or multi-level marketing, are tolerated for a while, but not for long. Similarly, companies that use social media as sales media must understand there is a time and place for it, or they risk harming their brand./p>

Sir Martin Sorrell, the head of WPP, the world's largest marketing and communications group, has similar concerns about the commercial use of social media. The Financial Times recently reported:

Sir Martin warned on Tuesday that social media sites are ”less commercial phenomena, they are more personal phenomena,” more similar to ”writing letters to our mothers” than watching television.

”Invading these [social] media with commercial messages might not be the right thing.”

So let's be honest about corporate use of social media -- it's really all sales media -- let's not dress it up as anything else.

Topic: Social Enterprise

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  • Companies abuse social media in three ways

    You mention the primary one: using it strictly as a sales and advertising tool in a one-way path. The other two misuses are equally important. Many companies dress up advertising as content (sound familiar?) and then pawn it off on social media sites. And many companies use it strictly to pass off advertising, without any means of dialog or feedback. <br><br>It's barely tolerable on normal websites when it's clearly identified as advertising, but it's not acceptable on social media sites. As you mention, social media operates on a level of trust different from normal websites ("guest in your home") and when that trust is violated, the resulting negative impression <b> harms</b> the corporate image that much worse. I'm often surprised at what gets passed off as "advertorials", because much of it is a direct insult to the intelligence of the potential customer, do you think we can't spot it?<br><br>Finally, social media is a two-way communication path with some idea of value exchange, not in money, but in the "you show me yours and I show you mine" kind of way. When businesses use social media simply as a push mechanism without that two-way exchange, then they again damage their own image. Like the blabbermouth guest at a party who isn't interested in listening to anyone else, they are soon shunned.
    terry flores
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

    On the whole I agree with Tom??????s conclusions, the simple truth is; direct sales tactics do not work in social media. However, I don??????t believe corporates should not engage via social media at all, they simply need to understand the medium, adjust their approach and get involved where they can be useful. They have to understand the rules have changed; social media isn??????t a broadcast medium nor is it a sales channel.
    Fundamentally, this is a difficult issue for many corporates to grasp. Sure, the theory of listening, understanding, developing a conversation and engaging usefully sounds good, but the next question is usually; ??????When do we get to the part where I make money???????

    There-in lies the problem. The part about listening, understanding your community and developing conversation is the key, and those that walk-the-walk, quickly discover the many new opportunities that social media offers if done right. After all what price would you place on real engagement and feedback from your customers, understanding their real needs and opening a constant flow of feedback - isn??????t that valuable? Doesn??????t that lead to reputation development, and yes eventually the coveted sale?
    Lloyd Gofton
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

    I totally agree with your assessment about companies being a guest on people's personal pages. But when you are at home, you have a doorway to keep people out - with Facebook and Twitter, you don't have even a virtual doorway - once you don't opt out via the privacy settings, your page is a living room in Central Park. Advertisers and marketers had better understand that, or people will take their conversations elsewhere. I have blogged about this and gotten some very strong feedback - http://tinyurl.com/38gsf73
    dlavenda
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

    I'd refine your statement a bit. Whether the use of social media is truly social or 'salesy' is entirely dependent on how its used. Your statement is too blanket for me. I work for Best Buy and help our businesses understand what works in social and what doesn't. I will agree that by and large the first impulse from marketers and merchants not familiar with social media is to use it as a sales channel. However, there's a core of us that do our best to ensure its not used that way. Your cocktail party analogy is one I use all the time. You can't show up and start pitching everyone at the party, they'll leave or throw you out.
    joshuakahn
    Reply Vote

  • there is more to social media than the cluetrain manifesto

    It is true that corporations do look at the engagement analytics of the personal endorsement in their campaigns these days. It used to be called "astro turfing" and was considered a black hat practice.

    There is more to social media than applying social pressure in the point of purchase, however. Companies such as http://getsatisfaction.com/ use an "outside in" approach to involve the customer in the product/service design cycle.

    There is also the use of corporate social media in enterprise collaboration.

    Check out http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/future-of-work/towards-a-more-sane-recipe-for-effective-corporate-social-media-37514 which calls for corporations to use social media in a white hat way.
    gengstrand
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

    Hi Tom, If what you are saying is the right way to appoach/question Social Media, then we should also look at how companies invade social life off line. I know of companies who try to get involved in school education programmes, saying they like to help schools educating kids about subjects like sustainability or environment, while in reality they are running a brand awareness campaign among young audiences & future customers. How do you feel about this?
    Brigit
    BrigitLaw
    Reply Vote

  • Very Insightful...

    I like the approach "As if you were a guest in their home" idea. That's an approach that really would engage me with a social media program for a company rather than turn me off.

    I think strategies that include people are innovative and interesting. The example of Old Spice and Twitter is in my opinion an interesting and innovative strategy. The fact that the public had a large part to play in the ads made them more like entertainment than a cold hard sales pitch. Old Spice got my eyeballs and my attention and didn't offend me which is what its all about.

    Also I wonder if there is any benefits to a "community" for non-business social networking, sometimes a "community" will form. People get together that wouldn't outside of network and start interacting on multiple levels. The upside to a community is it tends to form a large stable user base with low maintenance costs. The downside would be you need some one to moderate it but that person needs to allow some off topic conversations. For example a bunch of Ford Truck fans go to a Ford social site and mostly talk about Ford Trucks. But they might also talk about their families, jobs, life experiences. They become a closer knit group and form a network that helps each other buy more Ford products or will actually reach out to non-network members and encourage them to buy Ford products just to bring them into the community.
    mr1972
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Corporate social media is not social -- it's sales media

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