The previous few years have seen the emergence of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter whereby millions of people have accessibility to the internet can now publish their thoughts, their stories and what they are doing to everybody in their social and business circles.
We are seeing folks developing into amateur publishers, amateur business people and social media gurus.
If you take Facebook for example, folk are now attached to family members, friends, lost pals and contacts publishing everything that's happening in their lives.
We have seen Twitter appear giving folk the ability to follow other people they are interested in and hear their stories and thoughts.
While opening up and sharing are no doubt offering personal transparency, these social networks inspire business to continually diverge away from their key selling message.
If you are a firm believer that a product or a company exist to solve your problem, then many messages that aren't related to clearing up your monetary problems, your insurance wishes your insurance problems or any other problem distracts people.
Whilst it may be delightful to enter a Photoshop competition on the Adobe Business Catalyst Facebook page or retweet an amusing comment on Twitter, these are still distractions from that thing you do that will actually help a future customer.
So what we are seeing is thousands of so called social media experts acting on behalf of brands publishing without any commercial experience diluting the core message a company wishes to communicate with the purpose of captivating folks to their product.
Yes, publishing on social media networks is easy and therefore it draws unskilled practitioners with terribly limited commercial know how.
And business owners appear to be initially interested in the straightforwardness of social media only to be unsatisfied with the commercial results 6 months later on.
So what is the solution?
Well social media networks are not going to vanish shortly. But remember the mature search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing where people type in a difficulty they should find an answer. The search engines, while they exist to serve relevant information, truly help serve you with potential customers for your business. Which is in truth your largest problem in business; new customers.
Keep making an investment in search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising. With the right targeting, the proper message and a nice little budget you can generate a good investment return from efforts. And additionally, it's quantifiable and you can simply figure out what does and doesn't work and adjust in an appropriate way.
We are seeing folks developing into amateur publishers, amateur business people and social media gurus.
If you take Facebook for example, folk are now attached to family members, friends, lost pals and contacts publishing everything that's happening in their lives.
We have seen Twitter appear giving folk the ability to follow other people they are interested in and hear their stories and thoughts.
While opening up and sharing are no doubt offering personal transparency, these social networks inspire business to continually diverge away from their key selling message.
If you are a firm believer that a product or a company exist to solve your problem, then many messages that aren't related to clearing up your monetary problems, your insurance wishes your insurance problems or any other problem distracts people.
Whilst it may be delightful to enter a Photoshop competition on the Adobe Business Catalyst Facebook page or retweet an amusing comment on Twitter, these are still distractions from that thing you do that will actually help a future customer.
So what we are seeing is thousands of so called social media experts acting on behalf of brands publishing without any commercial experience diluting the core message a company wishes to communicate with the purpose of captivating folks to their product.
Yes, publishing on social media networks is easy and therefore it draws unskilled practitioners with terribly limited commercial know how.
And business owners appear to be initially interested in the straightforwardness of social media only to be unsatisfied with the commercial results 6 months later on.
So what is the solution?
Well social media networks are not going to vanish shortly. But remember the mature search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing where people type in a difficulty they should find an answer. The search engines, while they exist to serve relevant information, truly help serve you with potential customers for your business. Which is in truth your largest problem in business; new customers.
Keep making an investment in search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising. With the right targeting, the proper message and a nice little budget you can generate a good investment return from efforts. And additionally, it's quantifiable and you can simply figure out what does and doesn't work and adjust in an appropriate way.
About the Author:
Molly Jamieson writes for Adobe Business Catalyst partner Platonik. Their web site features examples of net shops using Adobe Business Catalyst.
