Most forward thinking organizations are already active in social media. Unfortunately, many of their social media efforts are suffering from mixed results.This was proven recently in a study by ad:tech Chicago and Q Interactive. The study focused on women's participation in social media, but in my view the study's findings are absolutely gender-neutral.
Here's what they found: even though over 50% of women surveyed said they'd "friended" a brand, only 17% said their online experience with the brand was positive!
The survey concluded:
Brand marketers still have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a social environment actually means-people are communicating on their own terms.
[Marketers] need to find a way to disassociate the brand from product and associate the brand with lifestyle or something that has more meaning on a personal level.
I know, I know: it's corporate marketing-speak. Translated into practical marketing terms, the study concluded that the majority of social media marketing isn't very interesting to its target audience.
The reason: marketers want to talk about features and benefits, and ummm... not to put too fine a point on it, but nobody cares.
To get people interested and involved, make your social media efforts about lifestyles, or something else with personal meaning. Leave the hyping of features and benefits to those who aren't reading this blog.
And that's practical marketing.
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