Let’s face it, social media success stories capture more than their share of attention.
Look at all the bytes and ink that Old Spice got for its recent video/Twitter campaign, which is pretty good for a product, which really is your father’s deodorant.
The downside to mega-success stories such as Old Spice is it creates expectations that any social media campaign can be a mega-hit or, at the very least, that a company’s social media efforts should see significant benefits.
The truth is achieving social media success can be elusive and challenging. Many companies never reach their goals due to a failure to execute. But another major issue is many company’s have unrealistic expectations.
Armed with high hopes and dreams of Old Spice or Starbucks-like success, these companies launch themselves into social media expecting their efforts will be met with so much enthusiasm that the likes, follows, comments, etc. will just flow in.
When this doesn’t happen, it leads to major disappointment and, sometimes, a decision to abandon to social media.
A better and more pragmatic approach is taking a realistic approach with benchmarks that are realistic and aligned with a company’s overall strategic goals. It could be that success doesn’t mean getting widespread coverage from blogs and traditional media.
Nevertheless, a company’s social media efforts can be successful by meeting or exceeding goals that are based in reality rather than dreams of the spotlight.
Hi There. I could not agree with you more. I think the other thing that gets lost is that many folks perceive the efforts as either being quick or easy, or both. They don’t realize that Old Spice took considerable effort to pull off and had the right elements of creativity and social hooks.
Also, brands with national recognition have a user base that is available for charging up. Newer brands have to build their bases and achieving this kind of succeeds takes time and consistent effort. And not for nothing, but the brand experience has to be there too. A lot of social media efforts fail because the products or services don’t live up to brand promise.
Thanks for the post Mark. Everyone thinking about social media for the first time should consider reasonable benchmarks…not the mega success stories.
Mark,
You make a number of really good points. It’s about setting expectations and realizing that the reason for all the accolades for certain social media efforts is the surprise of their success and the need to dissect what happened to make it repeatable. As you wouldn’t tie whitepapers and datasheets to an effective communications campaign, social media should be integrated into an overall strategy.
Thanks for the insightful post.