Too much social

Back before 2010, and even today some people have too much social media. One might wonder how you can have too much social as social is getting out there, talking, and getting your good word out to the masses. Well, it can happen to everyone, including you. You can have too much social and when you do you will actually set your social media back. Social media is as important to have a website with great content and optimized for not only your readers but the search engines.

Recently I was talking to a prospective client. Perspective as after we talked we opted to not take the project on. The reason was many with the biggest as all they wanted us to do is babysit what they had, grow it, but not do anything with it. The first was the company didn’t want to create a marketing plan as they saw it as an added cost even though we do it as part of our core package. They had paid for the last one which garnered them the eight social media platforms below but couldn’t produce what they had created as they said they shredded it as it didn’t work. The second was they were not willing to drop the others and actually wanted to expand beyond those. Let’s look at what they have to start which is a copy of some of my notes from our meeting:

• Facebook
  • Last post within the last week.
  • This is where they have focused all their efforts. In six months there hasn’t been one like or shares except by employees.
  • A few comments existed about how to purchase but never responded to. They didn’t think they had to as the phone number was on Facebook (a retired phone number that no longer worked).
  • They moved and the address was still the old address.
  • They are curating news (awesome) with some being their main competitor (not so awesome).
  • They have bad reviews and never responded to. They didn’t realize they were there as no one was actively watching.
• Google+
  • They have never posted to the site.
  • This one can be understood as Google accounts are important from an SEO standpoint.
• Pinterest
  • Last post two years ago (this is where they believed their most important audience was)
  • The intern that maintained left and no one knew how to log into the account
• Twitter
  • Last post within the last month (with a caveat).
  • The post was not generated on Twitter and was a Facebook cross-post.
  • The intern that setup Pinterest also set this up and no one knows how to get into this account either.
  • Looking at the past two years of posts (awesome for being there) they were all auto-posts from Facebook. Not one reply, re-tweet, or Like on any of them
• YouTube
  • No videos ever uploaded
  • They had hired a company to make videos and then uploaded to Facebook but were told you cannot have videos on both. Curious why but no one had an answer on that.
• LinkedIn
  • No posts and only one employee tied in.
  • This is a 40+ person company and several are my friends on LinkedIn.
  • So why didn’t they tie directly to the company and show their love for their employer?
  • They use this as a job board they state yet no notices about jobs.
• Instagram
  • 10 pictures total and all over two years old.
  • This is where they see the most engagement among all their sites above.
  • In fact, this is one they stated was a “waste” of their time.
• RSS (Blog)
  • The last post was two years ago.
  • Worse goes to a completely different site which doesn’t benefit the search engines.
  • If you look at the posts they were consistent for five years.
  • Their complaint was their site was dropping search engine wise each and every month.
  • They didn’t understand why.
  • I asked why they stopped a year ago.
  • They stated the person that wrote the articles left to a competitor.
  • We looked at the competitor and their blog started around the time the one ended.
  • They stated they didn’t see a need for a blog and it was a waste of money.
  • They just didn’t understand why their competitor was literally destroying them market wise as they went from the bottom and are now the top player in their industry within Northwest Indiana.

Beyond the above, they have an eCommerce page to buy off of but they have to call every person that orders as the pricing is wrong and they have to renegotiate the prices after someone orders online. They see that as a more cost-effective way than to update the prices.

When we finished talking with them I had helped them reset passwords and gain control of all their sites. They didn’t want to change anything they were doing and just wanted us to post once a week and that was it. I told them that would not create any results and would actually make them question what they were paying for. Sometimes money, even good, is bad money.

To turnaround your marketing it takes time and you need to work with those that want change. Trying to push the change to someone before they are ready is the worst thing to do. When I left they had control over all their accounts, left over a dozen action items, and let them know if they ever changed their mind we would love to help them out. I scheduled a follow-up lunch with their director of marketing as she wanted to change but the higher-ups didn’t. I know she has a tough uphill battle but have known her for years and know she will turn the ship around to where her seniors will be thankful.

In the end, I can only say get on the platforms that work best for your business. Be where your customers are, engage them, and participate in the conversation. Organically (e.g. not paying) is a slow battle but one that will provide you with dividends of rewards over the years. If you don’t know where your customers are the easiest way is to ask them.