B.L. Ochman's blog: 10 Things Social Media Can't Do

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10 Things Social Media Can't Do

By B.L. Ochman

Amid the endless pronouncements about social media -- often shortened to "social" these days by consultants trying to sound like they know what they are talking about -- is the reality that social media is not a solution, or a sure bet.

Social media can't:

The culture of fear (of job loss, of losing message control, of change) is ingrained in corporate cultures. Top management has to want to change.

Those results can't be produced or measured in the short term. Like PR, social media marketing often produces its best results in the second and third year.

You need strategy, contacts, tools, and experience--a combination not generally found in in-house teams, who often reinvent the wheel or use the wrong tools.

However, there's a lot of desperation in a lot of corporate suites these days, and many companies seem been convinced that a social media campaign can provide a quick fix to sagging sales or reputation issues. Sorry, nuh, uh.

Even taking free software like WordPress and making it function as an effective interactive site, incorporating e-commerce, creating style sheets that integrate with the company's branding, takes more than time. That takes skill, experience, and money.

And unless you know how to drive traffic to your contest, video, blog, event, etc. you'll have little more than an expensive field of dreams.

Companies trying to run social media without experienced consultants waste time, money, and reputation on their efforts. And then, sadly, many decide that this new-fangled approach doesn't work.

Comments

Great article. But a couple of the points sound like excuses to not bother with metrics (which are still useful for communicating with management and a couple sound like excuses not to build internal capability and instead rely on consultants. You're ...

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