Where do you think your biggest frustrations are with social media?
Trying to get a broad idea as to what the pain points are out there for business owners so we can address them more readily in our own sales processes.
Thanks for your help!
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Oct 10, 2012
Thank you all for your comments. They will be helpful as we evaluate our own process to provide a better experience to our customers! :)
Oct 9, 2012
Yes as noted by others; it does take time and care. And if you, or a consultant, are just going to spam useless information, it's not going to do much. Create something of meaning that your target customers care about and give them value. Give before you expect to get.
Measure what you do; here's an article for beginners to measure social media ROI
http://www.prontomarketing.com/2012/09/24/how-to-measure-social-media-success-for-beginners/
Good luck and let us know how it goes,
Derek
Sep 28, 2012
When the rules change without consultation with the users and the numerous fake accounts out there plus the spams that follows after an invite.
Sep 18, 2012
Separating the wheat from the chaff. So many people post meaningless stuff. It's not news, it's not interesting and it's not worthy of a response.
Twitter can be hard to deal with because you have to get through so much crap to get that one gold nugget and make your comment descriptive so we know what it's about before clicking on the link. I never click a link that is ambiguous like "hey, check this out, it's so cool"
Too many posters think the irrelevant is relevant.
Sep 18, 2012
Protocol. When to post and when not to post. What is too much information versus not enough. How do you obtain true engagement and then turn that into tangible results. These are the things that I have heard people say to me and within conversations about social media.
Sep 17, 2012
I am from Czech Republic and just starting with my online business. I am focusing mainly on social media, since my target group is accessible mainly through facebook. Czech people are very mistrustful so its a challenge when trying to make them interact, and participate. So first I have to make sure that it is worth for them to like the page and gain their trust. In Singapore same strategy with the same target group gained me 2 thousand of fans within only 2-3 weeks only, while in Czech after 3 weeks I was struggling with the first dozen. I think the topic of "culture specific online strategies" is pretty underestimated The mainstream social media strategy is not appliable on every market. Thats only my experience, but would love to read more about that.
Oct 10, 2012
Wow, this is really good to know. Actually, we run into the same challenges here in the U.S. People are tired of being sold to so they are hesitant even when you aren't trying to sell them anything at all! Why do you think that is that Singapore does so much better in terms of trust and fans?
Sep 12, 2012
I was about to comment, then read all the other comments .. and between them they sum it up. I'm the marketeer, my business partner the techy, he is away this week and my workload because of SM has trebled. My biggest bug bear is the 'chatter' .. off-topic comments that dilute the good stuff. We play a very long-game, trying to only add relevent comment (sometimes a bit contentious) but there is the constant feeling that you should be permently adding new stuff before you get lost in the melee of rubbish. It is not a solution for marketing/sales it is just part of the mix.
Sep 13, 2012
Yes! Thank you for sharing. It's refreshing to hear that you are also an agency communicating that to your customers.
Oct 10, 2012
Mel, taken some time to respond as Mosaic is mainly US based, whereas we are UK ... but even though we are not an agency (www.yourbusinessmatterstour.com) I frequently speak to companies who think that their tweets, LI, FB stuff is achieving anything ... whereas it tends to be 'noise' and ticking boxes rather than getting results and meaningful contacts ! hey hum !
Oct 10, 2012
Absolutely. Social Media is just an added bonus to marketing since people expect instant access, instant response and it empowers businesses to connect with customers/potential customers/address service issues on the spot (if done right) You'd be surprised how many agencies we compete against out here who sell people on the thought that social media by itself will do all sorts of amazing things for their business but it's just a piece of the giant digital marketing pie!
Sep 12, 2012
My biggest frustrations with SM are that it's passive and slow and can not be counted on. Just as the outcome of any word-of-mouth advertising cannot be choreographed or counted on. You just try for it and hope for the best.
I'm also frustrated by the hoards of SM "experts" (there's no qualification exam, so overnight we suddenly have thousands of them!) who usually have zero marketing experience but who are nevertheless pontificating at every opportunity about how SM is the one all-purpose marketing solution for everything from dog food to nuclear reactors.
And I continue to be mystified by how many marketing "professionals" are intimidated by all those newly-minted SM "experts," unquestioningly following them right over the edge of the cliff -- still wondering why their marketing efforts aren't getting any ROI! The Emperor's New Clothes is a very relevant parable for our times.
Al Shultz
http://www.alshultz.com/
Sep 13, 2012
Yup! I've run across multiple accounts who are managed by our competitors where they are paying $500+ monthly in exchange for a bunch of BS tweets that are a feed! It proves how so many "experts" are preying on those who don't understand social media and, furthermore, don't know how to properly build a marketing campaign.
I couldn't agree with you more that SM is a complement to marketing - not THE solution. Thank you for sharing.
Sep 12, 2012
From what our clients tell us... Too Much Time.
But let's remember: Social Media is a really BROAD term, including video, short message text, chatting, etc.
So quality video the grab attention might have to be done by someone like us but tweeting or staying on top of a Facebook Page can be handled by our clients.
Hope that helps!
Sep 12, 2012
The biggest frustration among the people I have talked with is that they don't have it. They don't have time to build it, maintain it, etc. If they don't have it, and they want to double their business, they won't succeed. Instead, they'll stay with their current customers and not grow, where-as, their neighbor will prosper, because he/she is implementing social media and their profits are through the roof. Short story for you... About 4 weeks ago I presented my dentist a free report about his practice. A week and half later, his office manager called because she handles all the marketing. We met face-to-face. A week later, she called me to let me know a cousin of the dentist is going to handle their website redesign. I thought, "Wow,, that's messed up". I actually said to her "ok, we chat at a later time when you are ready to make the plunge with a budget.
Many prospects gasp when they see how much it'll cost them up front and monthly for your services. They key is to tell them they can't afford not to.
Hope this helps.
Sep 13, 2012
You should go find another dentist ;) Thank you for sharing. The good news about that gesture for you is that it always comes back around some other way from another opportunity - so congrats in advance for the big opportunity to come your way in the near future!
Sep 13, 2012
continued...You just gave me an idea though. What about going to a prospect and giving them a report of those competitors around who are kicking butt in their social media campaigns versus theirs? Based on your experience you can share with them how that translates into dollars for their business.
If we roll that out, I'll be sure to look you up and let you know how it goes.
Sep 12, 2012
Slow and Steady Wins the Race – Don’t quit just before the miracle
OK we all know the story of the tortoise and the hair. Everybody wants to get rich quick, and instant gratification has been the name of the game since the hippies were smoking pot and eating acid at Haight and Ashbury. This is especially true in internet marketing. How many schemes have you seen where you can "make $5000 a month from home with a third grade education and a laptop." No typing skills required! Although few fall for that kind of hype, there is a general tone that I feel to be dangerous: this is a really easy way to make a decent living without really having to work all that hard.
Most successful people will tell you the secret to their “overnight success” is just plain hard work: 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Marketing in today’s environment is no different. My mentor and instructor at USF Jay Berkowitz, is one of the hardest working guys I know. He does a free webinar every week, countless public speaking engagements, teaches courses, and still has time to run a successful business. He must never sleep.
99% of my clients who fail, do so for one reason and one reason alone: they quit. The ROI they thought would come in from and integrated internet marketing campaign didn’t show results in the first month. They sent out an email campaign once and got almost no feedback other than a few people accusing them of spamming, so they quit. More at http://wp.me/pY9Fa-Jh
Sep 13, 2012
Do you typically work with smaller businesses or larger? I find the larger ones sweat more because, to them, it's coming out of their personal bottom line, not necessarily the companies. We always tell them in advance: if you don't feel comfortable sticking it out with us for at least 6 months then you aren't ready to hire us or any agency for that matter just yet. thank you for sharing!
Sep 12, 2012
I think the biggest challenge for most business owners using social media is creating content that is interesting and original. Posting quotes from some philosopher or industry guru is boring. Posting photos of their lunch is stupid. Religious and political comments can be offensive. And simply reposting something clever they saw on someone else's page doesn't position them as a thought leader.
If you want to get noticed, be funny, be smart, be unique.
Sep 13, 2012
lol, so true! In short, I always say "Be YOU!" I am tired of hearing the word "genuine" being thrown around so much that it sounds, well, disingenuous. That is definitely overwhelming for them. Have you found they are afraid to pass the reigns on to you as a manager? We have discovered that, especially for those business owners who have a difficult time delegating, that they are overly concerned about what we write on their behalf.
Sep 12, 2012
My experience with most of my clients - there are many things in social media - would people still notice my business?
Agreed. We work really hard to come up with solid legit content that people want to read from our customers and from our own blog. It's amazing how many agencies, customers, sites, etc. think that scraping from another source, copying just about ver batum than slapping it up on their blogs as if it was their own is okay.
I also think that "genuine" and "relevent" has been used so often in our industry that the meaning of the words have been extremely diluted.