If you can’t measure the response to your marketing, maybe you are doing something wrong
I disagree with this post by Susan Payton:
I think we need to shift our thinking about marketing results in terms of having absolute control and ability to micromanage the results and just sit back and let it happen. You won’t see results overnight, but if you use social networking sites correctly and participate in the right conversations, you will see a positive change. You will see traffic to your site increase. You will see sales climb. Just relax and let it happen.
Let’s all take a deep breath and let out all those years of being control freaks, of needing to know exactly how everything will pan out. Marketing 2.0 is happening as we speak. There is no precedence set. We are making history with internet marketing and social media. Do you want to go along for the ride or sit this one out and regret it later?
I am astonished by the attitude that Payton is expressing. Why are we suppose to have blind faith in social media? Why is it that any normal ad platform has to prove itself to us, but social media gets a free pass? If people are having trouble measuring the results of their social media efforts, maybe that’s because those efforts are worthless and need to be stopped?
One of my current clients has pages on MySpace and Facebook. They occasionally post news bulletins to both of them. They’ve tried to build up a network of friends on both. How much traffic do we see in the referers from either? Generally, we get zero a month, though sometimes we get 3 or 4. Therefore, I am strong advocate of abandoning both platforms. The return on investment is terrible. The time spent on those sites could be better spent elsewhere.
If you can’t measure a result, there is a good chance that you are wasting your money. Therefore, you should not spend money on this kind of media.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
[...] Susan Payton’s advice was a bit of a shock to me. I was almost offended by her tone of “let’s ignore the facts and do this anyway.” Her argument for social media marketing was wholly faith-based: I think we need to shift our thinking about marketing results in terms of having absolute control and ability to micromanage the results and just sit back and let it happen. You won’t see results overnight, but if you use social networking sites correctly and participate in the right conversations, you will see a positive change. You will see traffic to your site increase. You will see sales climb. Just relax and let it happen. [...]