Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!
An idea introduced to a population almost always fades away.
Send 1,000 people a coupon, and perhaps 20 use it. To get more usage, you either need to ping the audience again or find a new group of people.
This explains why marketers are always in search of new people to reach, and also insist on frequency of messaging–it maximizes the percentage of the group that is reached and minimizes the fade of the idea.
There’s an important exception to the rule of fading ideas, though.
This post is for anyone who has had to ask (or been on the receiving end of the query) where did our social media marketing strategy go wrong?
The answer may be two-fold.
It is possible that things began to go awry when the primary focus of social media marketing shifted to numbers; that is, when the accumulation of fans, friends, followers and connections became the be-all-end-all measure of success.
Especially when compared to conventional media, social media affords such great opportunities, not the least of which is placing the world at the proverbial doorstep of any enterprise…without respect to budget. But the instant that bolstering numbers becomes the objective, the real strength of SM has been diminished. From the beginning, social has been about community; its dynamic growth is directly linked to the market’s desire to connect, to experience relationship, to be part of something; its lifeblood is dialogue. Go for numbers in lieu of relationships and sacrifice results.
Social shopping has many components is expanding everyday, and has been around for centuries. Women shop socially with friends and family, and always have, so convincing them to share, participate and have fun with it is not the issue, but rather its the myriad of choices, the ever evolving applications, and the education process that goes along with all this innovation.
The problem as I see it is discovering and using the appropriate applications that will get the traction and scale required to make them valuable to both shoppers and brands alike.
Brands needs to work with companies that specialize in getting out on the front lines constantly testing, vetting and crowd sourcing to determine the viability, user friendliness, and potential long term value of new applications and how they will change the evolving social shopping landscape.
Ted Rubin