You Can't Buy Social Media Love

Eric Groves
Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:25:00 +0000

Can you believe there are unscrupulous marketers out there trying to game social media marketing with inflated friend and follower counts, paid tweets, and other shenanigans? According to this recent Wired article, that's exactly what's happening. The horror!

Okay, so maybe that's a bit of mock indignation on my part. But let's face it, those who think they can buy their way to friends and followers or get real value out of paid-for tweets are the same bad marketers who think buying email lists is a good idea. (And if you're one of those people who think buying a list is a good idea, just read this succinct post on the topic from Blue Sky Factory's DJ Waldow.)

A business' social media marketing friend/fan/follower/connection growth strategy should be the same as the one used for growing an email marketing list: Organic. Yes, that can be slow, but the results will be much better than acquiring a list of bad names or followers who will quickly lose faith in you and disconnect from your marketing efforts.

The Wired article puts it well:

Marketing has always been a crucial, necessary part of the media. On one hand, why shouldn't it be part of social media? On the other, the social fabric of social networks -- precisely the element that makes them valuable to marketers -- will deteriorate if we can't trust the people and numbers we see there.

Build your social media marketing following by first letting your current customers know about your presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, or Gowalla. Use your existing email marketing campaigns to direct loyal customers to these channels; post your social media links in the signature of your personal emails; and advertise your social media presence in your physical location through signage and placards.

As your current customers connect with you on social media sites, interact with them and continue to give them reasons to continue their support. Doing so will surely bring in new followers and fans thought the viral nature of social media, growing your network with people you want to be connected with: True customers and prospects.

In the end, social media marketing, like email marketing, is not about the size of your list, but the quality of the people on the list. You want people who are willing to spread your messages with their endorsement to their own group of friends and followers. That's real social media marketing -- not having an inactive presence with a huge number of followers who are equally passive.