Social Media Marketing Misinterpretation

Social Media Marketing

I have quite a few friends who explore the options of marketing and advertising in the Social Media arena. I wish them the best at their endeavors, but I think they may not realize a few important things.

Now, I am no marketer or advertiser, but I do know a little about Social Media. So just hear me out before you close this tab.

From an outside perspective looking in, the only marketing that seems to really impact Social Media is viral marketing. For instance, the “I’m a PC and I’m a Mac” ads do quite well. So why do these ads do so well and not others? Simply because it is a funny ad campaign. Not just an ad but a campaign of ads. These campaigns provide a sustainable flow of traffic if the product is a good one, and so are the ads.

I once read an article about an advertiser whose client said “Hey I heard about this website called Digg.com and we want to be on there.” His response was that he would not do it, for the simple fact that the ad was not viral and that they would not get sustainable traffic. If you want your product on Digg buy ad placement. Lord knows Kevin Rose is selling ad space like crazy. Have you seen the site lately?

Ok, sorry, back to the sustainable traffic thing. So you get a submission to Digg about your company and you have one really cool ad. (The ad has to be really, really, cool to front page). So you then see a flow of heavy traffic for a couple of days and then it is gone. After that you might get a few original visits to the site but that is about it. Also if you do not have the server to support a massive influx of visits for those couple of days guess what, your server crashes and you are dead in the water. So Social Media traffic is not sustainable unless you have a viral campaign or a really cool ad that will flow out through the internet. There is a recruiting ad out on the internet for Connected Ventures.

This has been viewed more than 1 million times. Hell I wanna work there. This is the prime example of a viral video that has sustainability. Like I said it has to be REALLY good.

I know some marketers may disagree with me, but hey, it is their right to do so. I am just calling it like I see it. If your clients want to billboard themselves on the internet, best just keep the bill-boarding to interstates, more people will see it.