Since Mashable and a host of other search optimized blogs are always writing list posts to help brands use social media more effectively, I figured I might help by offering some innovative new ways to fail. Sure, failing isn’t the goal of most brands when they branch off into a new channel but often knowing what leads to failure is a better path than accumulating a bunch generic advice or “rules.” How many brands have really mastered social media simply by “listening first” and being “transparent”? It’s a lot more complicated than that and I hope this can help your brand avoid a pitfall or two.
Without any further ado, here are my five easy ways to fail at social media:
- Invest all your time and resources into Facebook – Sure, Facebook is the dominant social network right now and its reach is immense but a quick look back at the history of social media platforms should tell you all you need to know about how secure SOV is on the Internet. As big as Facebook is, AOL was even bigger back when the Web was a very raw place and they gave it a nice interface and enabled people to connect with each other without having to know code and command prompts. In the early 1990′s, if you were on the Internet you were on AOL, Prodigy or Compuserve. To say that those companies fell from their market position is an understatement. Likewise, there was a time when Friendster was the only viable profile-driven social network out there and the bell curve of social media has seen MySpace and Facebook follow much the same path. Yes, be active on Facebook and know how to use it but also know that it’s not a permanent destination for your stakeholders to engage with your brand.
- Hire an intern to manage your social media profiles – If you search for social media jobs of Craig’s List, you will probably see most of them offered as entry level or below positions. The rationale here is that younger people know social media better than older people and luckily younger people are cheaper to hire so it’s a win-win, right? Very few of these same companies would let an intern anywhere near a press release, the copy of a print ad or one of their call centers even though much of the content they disseminate through social media channels will be around much longer and is much more likely to be damaging at some point in the future. Conversely, someone who claims to have been an expert in social media for 15 years is also a little suspect since it pretty much didn’t exist 15 years ago.
- Be completely in the dark on search optimization – More people will discover and be influenced in relation to your brand in search than any other media channel. I’ve never seen any data that can refute this claim. Social platforms like blogs and open third party services like Twitter are some of the best search optimization tools available to you and if they’re used as a low level customer service platform then you’re missing a huge opportunity. I’m not saying that SEO should drive all your social media content but understanding SEO when you’re linking, writing copy and titling content is one of the most important skills you can bring to your social media program.
- Put too much of an emphasis on visualization of social data – I’ve heard more than one creative director with a storied ad history say that social media is ugly. This mindset is the basis for many ad agencies approaching social media with the goal of cleaning it up for public consumption. While there are some examples of this done well, like Nike’s NBA playoffs Twitter visualization, generally this creates a disposable piece of content that eliminates all dialogue between the brand and it’s stakeholders and has no UX or SEO value to the brand itself.
- Be a robot - People like to talk to other people, not a giant voice behind a curtain. There is a lot of technology that can help you parse a ton of social media data to give the feeling like you can be everywhere at once but, if you have limited resources, you’re probably better off starting small and tackling social in manageable pieces. This is easier for smaller brands so make sure you’re able to manage expectations of your stakeholders when you’re ready to open the flood gates. If your interactions are limited to the things you post on your Facebook wall then you’re not offering anything much different from direct mail.
Obviously this is just the tip of the iceberg. Opportunities to fail at social media are everywhere so it’s really more of a question of deciding how you want to fail. With practice and patience, I’m confident that everyone can fail at social media.
