Summary
Chapter 3 of No Bullshit Social Media, titled “Your Competition May Have Already Kicked Your Ass,” presents several case studies exemplifying the consequences of not being on social media as a company. The authors argue that the competition that is on social media is actually listening to consumers’ conversations (including complaints about your product/service) and is taking advantage of those conversations to build relationships and, ultimately, win over customers.
Chapter 4, titled “Here’s the Secret: There Is No Damn Secret!” brings up the discussion that while the technology of social media as such may be new, commerce has always been about building trusting relationships with communication. After briefly reviewing the history of social media platforms, the authors simplify the SMM landscape by saying that, while social media isn’t about advertising, the platforms are, and that ad services of the like offered by Facebook can be effective because of their targeting functionality. The chapter concludes by laying out steps to building up a solid social media plan, including asking the following questions (with comments in parentheses):
Chapter 3 of No Bullshit Social Media, titled “Your Competition May Have Already Kicked Your Ass,” presents several case studies exemplifying the consequences of not being on social media as a company. The authors argue that the competition that is on social media is actually listening to consumers’ conversations (including complaints about your product/service) and is taking advantage of those conversations to build relationships and, ultimately, win over customers.
Chapter 4, titled “Here’s the Secret: There Is No Damn Secret!” brings up the discussion that while the technology of social media as such may be new, commerce has always been about building trusting relationships with communication. After briefly reviewing the history of social media platforms, the authors simplify the SMM landscape by saying that, while social media isn’t about advertising, the platforms are, and that ad services of the like offered by Facebook can be effective because of their targeting functionality. The chapter concludes by laying out steps to building up a solid social media plan, including asking the following questions (with comments in parentheses):
- Why are you using social media? (to produce X result)
- Are you willing to follow the accepted practices? (transparent conversations instead of advertising)
- Who will be responsible for the social media efforts? (including responding to complaints, frequently monitoring networks, developing policy)
- How will you launch and promote your social media presence? (not a one-time event)
- How will you define and measure success?
Response and Questions
While much of these two chapters is familiar by now, the material on “mindset shifts” is, I sense, pretty key here. Here are the highlights with my thoughts:
While much of these two chapters is familiar by now, the material on “mindset shifts” is, I sense, pretty key here. Here are the highlights with my thoughts:
- “If you want people to trust you, you need to trust them, namely employees and customers.” This makes sense. Trust the people you put in charge of SMM, and trust the customer to talk frankly about you online. Embrace the level of control that social media enables and don’t try to force it.
- “It’s not about the sale; it’s about the lifetime value of the customer.” I can fully understand that a customer who feels trusted and well-treated will trust and treat well the company whose products and services he or she buys. Relationships(!!!). Is it ethical to “track” or “follow” the good loyal customers the authors describe in this section?
- “Measure what matters, not everything you can find.” Yes! Finally some concrete guidance on metrics. My lingering question, though, is how do I establish benchmarks for measurement in the first place? How do I know if “Increase website traffic by 30%” is modest or ambitious as a goal--or relevant? I guess another question is: are there limits to what types of goals are achievable with SMM?