Honesty is the best policy.
It’s a tired expression, for sure. But when it comes to social media marketing, there’s not a cliché you’ll hold dearer when the whistleblowers come a-calling.
Just ask Wal-Mart, whose never-ending PR problems worsened when a blog called “Walmarting Across America,” allegedly dedicated to the RV travels of an American couple with an affinity for squatting in the superstore’s parking lots, was uncovered as a fake.
Remember that infamous fracas?
While the scandal didn’t dethrone the world’s largest retailer, it also didn’t do much to help its image as a manipulative corporation that consistently puts its own interests before consumers’.
Perhaps this massive and well-documented misstep is why the majority of businesses are avoiding social media – at all costs.
According to this WebProNews article, which cites a global survey conducted by Avanade, an IT consultancy company, “60 percent of respondents say integrating social media technologies is not on the agenda, and only 18 percent have any kind of strategy in place to integrate social media within the company for employees.”
Surprising statistics? Depends on how you look at it, we suppose.
From one perspective, why would a company actively pick a fight with the fickle world of social networkers? These communities are savvy and not easily impressed. One wrong move could cost a company its integrity.
As writer Lisa Barone puts it in her “7 Deadly Sins of Social Media,” “If you can’t invest the time to create an authentic social media profile, then don’t bother creating one at all. Your customers want to interact with you, not a bot that’s programmed to automatically leave wall messages, friend people on command and spit back key phrases like a parrot. That isn’t social media. It is social spamming and it will hurt your company. A lot of companies look at this type of behavior as a “quick fix” – they get to engage in social media without putting in any real effort. It may sound good, but eventually people will figure out that you’ve been lying to them and your brand reputation will take a nose dive once you’re outed and flamed through the blogosphere.”
Ouch.
On the other hand, what does a company have to lose if they’re up front and honest from the get-go?
Not much. The outlook can be quite optimistic, in fact. If social marketing is inclusive and forthright, the company will likely satisfy the needs of a greater number of customers with its transparent messaging.
Take this case study from Levi’s Project 501, for instance. Its user-submitted design contest received 134,000 unique visitors and almost 19,000 registered users. In addition, the project racked up 924 social networking/blog badges with more than 30,000 views.
How’d they pull it off? Simple: The message was straightforward, engaging and, we’ll say it again, transparent.
That’s the key to social media marketing success: transparency.
If your message isn’t – as Wal-Mart can attest – your audience will see through it anyway.
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Most companies have websites. Static things showing products for sale. But think of what else one can do if they can tie into the readers emotions and ego.
I really wish I had a real gut understanding of the next wave of internet business.
Steve