Several months ago, fellow SMC writer Dylan Thaemert wrote a great piece about our ideal client. As he describes in his great overview, our ideal client knows their business, understands marketing, and isn’t interested in going viral.
I thought I would piggyback off his post with something I think many businesses need to hear: social media is not a silver bullet. I repeat: social media is not a silver bullet.
What do I mean by that? A few things.
If you develop and execute a social media strategy expecting leads to start pouring in a few weeks later, you are going to be disappointed.
If you expect social media and content marketing alone to be enough to make your company great, you are going to be disappointed.
If you think that you are going to sell more steel on Facebook, or close a professional services deal on Twitter, you are going to be disappointed.
And if you expect to be able to show exactly what you are getting out of social media for every $1 you spend, you are going to be disappointed.
Why in the world, you are probably thinking, would anyone willingly execute a content marketing and/or social media plan, then?
Because the world we live in is not black and white. If you are selling a complex product or service and not a burrito, social media will probably not be your biggest driver of sales. Instead, what it will do when executed correctly is bring in top-of-the-funnel leads and make your name present whenever it is that a purchasing decision finally happens.
Unless you are publishing content every day, making it easy for prospects to see why and how you understand their problems and staying in front of a large audience of potential customers, you are not going to get that sale. Just because it is not instant ($1 into Facebook = $1.50 back to your business) does not mean it lacks value. It is just that the value is spread out over a larger period of time, and harder to track because we are human, and humans are influenced by a number of sources all at once.
Social media, then, is not a silver bullet. But done right and with the right strategy, it can be tremendously successful.
Paired alongside, as Dylan mentions in his blog, a well-defined brand, a deep understanding of marketing, and a knowledge that you probably won’t “go viral,” social media is tremendously effective at starting the sales cycle and bringing people to your site. But, as with other marketing tactics, if you put all your eggs in one basket, you are probably going to be, yes, disappointed.
If you would like to learn more about how social media and/or content marketing could benefit your business, get in touch with us today.
Image credit: CC by Sprott_Money
