How to Combatting Social Media Fatigue
You shouldn’t neglect an ironic new opportunity for social media ad campaigns:
poking fun at social media.
There’s no question that for many people, the hype surrounding social media is a
touch overdone. Toyota recently seized on this trend—and the generational
tensions stoked by Facebook’s rise—with a series of clever television ads by
Saatchi & Saatchi for the Toyota Venza crossover.
In one, a worried twenty-something woman sits alone at her kitchen table,
browsing Facebook and addressing the camera. Having read “the majority of an
article online” that reported “older people are becoming antisocial,” she was
aggressive about getting her parents onto Facebook. Alas, they have only 19
friends (losers!). The ad cuts to footage of her baby-boomer parents, off-roading
in their Venza and mountain biking with friends. Their daughter, still at home
looking at pictures of puppies on Facebook, concludes happily, “I have 687
friends! This is living.”
I love it—it’s funny, ironic, light, but makes a worthwhile point about lifestyle.
And I doubt many younger people would be offended on behalf of their
generation. We all believe we use Facebook in a healthy, balanced way.
Regardless of age, most viewers wouldn’t identify with the daughter in this spot.
She is a caricature of lameness, and most viewers know she represents a certain
type of social media addict, not all people of her generation.
The double irony is that many of the ad’s impressions have been on social
media. I heard it on Pandora, saw it on YouTube, then searched and found a post
about it on a marketing blog. Much of the buzz and discussion about it will take
place on social media. But afterward, we’ll all go mountain biking, right? This is
living!
Another fun twist was Victoria’s Secret’s 2010 offer of free-with-purchase,
limited-edition bikini panties emblazoned across the seat with the Facebook.
thumbs-up icon and the slogan “You Like This.” This exclusive offer was
available with a printable coupon only after consumers “liked” the brand on
Facebook.
(Facebook member-exclusive offers, by the way, are a great tactic to generate
enthusiasm and underscore a sense of exclusivity and the privilege of
membership—a strong answer to the natural question, “Why would I join your
fan page? What’s in it for me?”)
These examples point out that sometimes the best way to play the social media
trend is with a bit of self-awareness, irony, and self-deprecating humor. It can be
an excellent way to stand out from the herd.
Promotion and Earned Media
While this chapter has focused almost entirely on paid advertising, advertising
and promotion are inextricably linked. Your major advertising campaigns should
be echoed simultaneously in other channels, including traditional and online
press releases.
Tip Even prominent journalists do some research online, looking for
specialists, experts, and “talking heads” among the blogs and on professional
networks like LinkedIn. If you cultivate good social media visibility in your field
or market, you could find yourself tapped for an interview out of the blue.
Blog networks are an interesting fusion between social media and paid
promotion. Today, most of the biggest, most influential blogs are no longer
labors of love but are supported by advertising and sponsorship. In my
experience, specialty networks like BlogHer and SheBlogs, both of which
aggregate “mommy bloggers” and other female-targeted blogs, can reach a
valuable audience. The most attractive opportunities here are for sponsored
sweepstakes and promotions, as well as packages that combine sponsorship with
editorial coverage.
“Earned media” is a term that has arisen to describe free media coverage, the
unpaid exposure in online and traditional media when your “story” catches on.
Giveaways and sweepstakes are not paid advertising, but they require many of
the same budget-setting rigor and results tracking. Perhaps you’re trying to get
10,000 free samples into the hands of bona fide prospects likely to buy your
product in the future. Or maybe you want to promote a big sweepstakes, to
collect qualified leads to opt into your e-mail newsletter. Promotions like these
will typically be supported by both free and paid media.
Don’t Go There
Major and minor social networks and platforms are scrambling to fill their
coffers (and in the case of newly public companies, to justify their high but
tumbling stock prices). The resulting landscape offers far more ad-buying
opportunities than the potential advertiser—that’s you—can or should pursue.
As Donald Trump famously observed, “Sometimes, your best investments are
the ones you don’t make.”
Note Scams and frauds are alive and well on social media. Whether to dupe
individuals or businesses, fake profiles abound—Facebook recently purged a
whopping 83 million of them.
Stay away from operations that offer to add thousands of fans to your accounts
in a matter of 24 or 48 hours, for flat-fee packages starting as low as $97. Sure,
these firms claim to be on the up-and-up, and that no one will ever know that
you “bought” your fans. But the tactics used by many fan-sellers are cheesy,
manipulative, and bad for brands. That’s counterproductive if your goal is to
create positive brand associations and build authentic connections with brand
loyalists and genuine prospects.
Most social fan-driving schemes are pretty simple:
1. Establish armies of fake profiles. Since sex sells, many, like the Twitter-
deleted @jennieBHottie, are on the sexy side.
2. Use those fake profiles to follow the paying customer accounts.
3. Build huge but empty audiences through auto-following and friend
requests.
4. Tweet and direct-message followers to promote “likes” and follows of the
paying accounts.
The Mitt Romney 2012 campaign got a black eye when news outlets reported
something fishy about @mittromney’s sudden one-day jump of 117,000 Twitter
followers. Online security firm Barracuda Labs identified a number of causes for
suspicion:
1. Followers jumped 17% in a single day
2. 80% of the profiles were under three weeks old
3. 23% had never tweeted
10% of the accounts had already been suspended by the time the story hit
“We believe most of these recent followers of Romney are not from a general
Twitter population,” wrote Barracuda Labs research scientist Jason Ding, “but
most likely from a paid Twitter follower service.”
5
It’s unknown whether follower-buying occurred, or who might be responsible—
the campaign itself, a supporter, or even a rival’s dirty tricks campaign. But the
message is clear: shortcuts to social media success will blow up in your face.
Such tactics make you look lazy and clueless at best, sleazy and dishonest at
worst. The results—thousands of zombie followers that disappear the moment
Twitter gets wise to the abuse-do nothing to build real community or further your
business goals.
The same scams occur on Facebook. National Public Radio reported on a service
selling 1,000 “likes” for $75.
6 Although that business claimed its “likes” came
from bona fide accounts, fake accounts are a centerpiece of some schemes.
“Right now on the black market, you can actually buy and sell bundles of
Facebook account credentials,” Ben Zhao, computer science professor at UC
Santa Barbara, told the reporters. “Tens of dollars or hundreds of dollars, for
hundreds or thousands of Facebook accounts.”
I’m not dismissing all services or agencies that claim they can help you get more
exposure on social media. But if a firm is promising to add thousands of fans or
followers to your accounts for a few bucks in the space of mere days or weeks,
be afraid. Be very afraid. That’s no way to build a truly brand-focused online
community of real people interested in you and in each other.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Summary:
One of the main attractions of social media especially for smaller companies,
start-ups, and others with few dollars to spend has been the access to millions of consumers for free. But can you still make an impact without spending ad dollars
on Facebook and the rest.
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