I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (and writing) lately about the strange myths social media practitioners have created about marketing. I’ve even started dividing marketing into two time periods, kind of like our BC and AD. There’s how marketing was discussed PSM (pre-Social Media) and then there’s how marketing is talked about, well, now.
It’s not that I think people in the online world have created these marketing myths on purpose. Rather, I think a lot of people got involved with social media, realized they needed to know some marketing, and so they sort of threw together some ideas, some of which make sense and some of which are kind of silly.
I thought I’d summarize the 12 most wacky myths I’ve come across in my two years in the online world. With that — here we go!
Now, I’m sure there are some evil agencies out there. It’s hard to find any single group of humans that doesn’t include at least a few bad apples. However, to say that all agencies are evil is kind of over-stating the point. Don’t you think?
Logos can be a symbol for a brand, but to say that a logo IS a brand is quite the myth. Factually, branding is far more complex and, to be truthful, far more significant than a company logo in and of itself.
Just like many people measure the success of a banner ad program with the number of impressions the ad receives, a lot of people seem to measure the success of an email marketing program based on how many opens it receives. Factually, opens are very similar to impressions. Opens just mean someone’s eyeballs may have rested for a moment upon your email. Especially with preview panes, there’s no actual guarantee that an open means someone is truly interested in your content.
This is probably the biggest hot button issue for me. Failure is highly romanticized in the online world as if there are never any consequences for such things. In the real world, however, especially during these rocky economic times, failure can mean a lost job, lost insurance, lost opportunity, and lost confidence. While failure can be a good learning experience under the right circumstances, it’s not always “sexy” for everybody.
A lot of people in the online world decry the concept of planning. You just need to jump into things. Planning takes valuable time. You need to be fast and flexible. In fact, planning can be a failsafe against really serious problems. For example, if you have a plan you can have an idea of how to respond if someone starts sending negative comments to your Facebook page. You can make sure your message is consistent across all of your marketing platforms. You can measure and have an idea of how to report results. Does that sound lame? Well, not to me, anyway.
Integrated marketing is a phrase that has sort of seen its meaning thinned out over the last few years thanks to some misinformation in the online world. I highly recommend reading Marketing in the Round by Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston — they do a much better job of defining what integrated marketing really is, far better than I could.
Many people in the online world preach strongly against using any “traditional” marketing tactics. All you really need, they seem to suggest, is a healthy dose of social media. There are a lot of ramifications to making this kind of decision. In particular, companies need to consider what kind of message they may be sending to the industry and their existing customers when they pull completely out of a marketing channel. Hint: People usually don’t associate this kind of move with good news.
The conversation about what I call this “myth” can become quite emotionally charged. There are a lot of people who insist that even if your contacts may not buy from you directly, they might know someone who knows someone who will buy from you. That may be true, but if the people you are getting to know online are peers from your own industry, chances are good that they’re going to claim the business of someone that would buy from either of you, right? Social media marketing is not about getting people to like you, at its core. It’s getting sales. Right?
Once upon a time, I wrote up a story for our company e-newsletter about how a big name in social media was saying that measuring the ROI of social media was like measuring the ROI of your mother. I showed this story to my boss, who is not as highly engaged in the online world as I am. His response: “What does this even mean?” There are some “squishy” parts to the online world, but if you’re online for business, you’d best find a way to track your time (aka your investment). Otherwise you’ll end up without money all of a sudden and you’ll not be quite sure why it happened.
I’ve come across a lot of articles that say that if your company isn’t yet using Twitter, you’re really behind the 8-ball. I almost view this as a kind of business bullying. If you have analyzed what your company needs and have determined that Twitter is not one of those things, you should not be made to feel bad about that. But the key thing is that you DO analyze what your company does and does not need.
How many times have you seen someone say, “I’m going to work on building my website this weekend?” There seems to be this idea in the online world that putting together a website is super easy. Heck, even a cave man could do it. That’s true if you want a website that is unprofessional in appearance or in utility. What if you want something that really works? This is not a hit at people who try to make a professional website, but expectations should be adjusted for the real world.
This may be the most damaging myth for businesses in the online world. There’s this idea that if you do something for your company, it’s free, but if you hire an outside source to work on something it’s not free. This myth impacts discussions of ROI, agencies, and many of the other myths I’ve mentioned here. If you are on your company’s payroll, your time is NOT free. You must track it and determine if your time is going to end up being more costly than an external source.
These are the myths that I find the most wacky/disturbing. What about you? Do you agree that these are myths or do you feel these statements are true? What myths have you encountered? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Featured image courtesy of peregrine blue licensed via Creative Commons.
Margie - Great piece. I think you make a very clear point. All of these myths are cases of extreme or excess. Nothing in life is good when overdone and under thought. So many over the top ideas but I bet there are plenty of folks who believe in them.
Can there be too much of a good thing? It would seem so.
Cheers,Marc
love this post. thank you for keeping it real. I love number 12 and, in particular, number 11. I am sitting in an apartment in Paris finailzing a website for a French client and, please believe, I am now working for free. Why? Because I want his website to be usable and professional!
I really like the Brand<>Logo. Plastering a logo everywhere is not a branding strategy. @JennGHan @12Most
Dear Margie... how on earth did I miss this one. I have a special fondness for #10 and #11 especially - having just spent 6 months revamping our site. #7 absolutely makes me want to scream or hit someone - I have a beloved client who was being sucked into this belief and I had to snap him out of it.
Once again, thanks for having Common Sense... not really so common in regards to these matters.
@AmyMccTobin Thanks Amy. As I always say, if I'm the one providing common sense we may all be in trouble :)
Latest blog post: Sometimes You Have To Bleed To Heal
RT @PaulBiedermann: 12 Most Wacky Marketing Myths In the Online World http://t.co/EQ0uPR3t via @MargieClayman #marketing
ty, guys! RT @GabriCazzulini @gracenote @emitoms: 12 most wacky marketing myths: http://t.co/midbGUzZ via @terrinakamura
ty ! @emitoms the content is great when it's shared with good friends like you and @terrinakamura and @gracenote !!!
@terrinakamura haha !! I love it :-) a night owl I see! What is going on with this weather today ?!
@emitoms HA HA. I'm *always* on this time of the night. It's the first chance I have after taking care of other things! How was your trip?
@terrinakamura I am! and so are you! :-) I am actually flying back to Seattle tomorrow--Still packing! Why are you up so late?!
I really enjoyed #12. Something that goes hand-in-hand with that statement is that "your time" can happen in your spare time while still doing your day job. It isn't realistic, and it can lead to burnout fast...as well as delinquent engagement that could hurt your reputation if it appears you are unresponsive. And the truth hurts about the myth of "if people like you they will buy from you". If they like you, then they will not immediately disqualify you during the buying process. However, it still comes down to what value you bring to the table - and frequently STILL comes down to price!
@dbvickery Time is a slippery slope for sure. Ric Dragon talks about that in Social Marketology as well. If you're a boss how do you draw the line between social media for fun and social media for networking? But other areas are more clear-cut. If you say things like, "I'm going to make my own website because it'll be free versus paying someone," you've got a dangerous mindset going in.
I find that many of the people I like best in my online world are people would never need an agency. They're either marketing people themselves or they're in businesses that just wouldn't fit well with what we do. In that sense, my own social media work, from a business perspective, got way off track. It doesn't mean people like me any less - we're just not a good business match.
Latest blog post: Sometimes You Have To Bleed To Heal
Hi Margie, thanks for the post. Social media is all the rage at the moment, which I think explains some of the ridiculous ideas people have. As time goes by, I expect people will gain a better understanding of where social media should sit.
@Andrew Healey I agree. I think once some of the excitement rubs off a bit more common sense will prevail.
Latest blog post: Sometimes You Have To Bleed To Heal
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Lots of great points here, @margieclayman. Sad that so many social media “marketing” practitioners don’t come from marketing backgrounds — makes it that much tougher for real marketers to dispel all the disinformation before having any hope of getting the true messages across.
To your points about integrated marketing, another myth is that “print is dead.” We have hands, we like to touch and feel stuff as many of us still have lives away from the computer and even quite possibly, away from other kinds of digital devices.
But what goes around comes around. If one stopped a moment and took note of the fact that so few are doing really great, well-conceived and designed direct PRINT marketing (or ANY direct marketing that isn’t of the email genre, for that matter) — then maybe that kind of approach would be seen as having a better chance of standing out and making an impact than it has in a very long time. Perhaps, delivering even better business results than the flavors of the decade. I would think that true marketers would think that way, anyway.
Social has its place. Digital has its place. So does experiential and so do “traditional” marketing tactics. Bringing them all together in the perfect balance for a particular company, brand and smart, well thought-out strategy — that is what is really exciting! And most effective.
@PaulBiedermann Thanks Paul!
One predominant mode of thinking that disturbs me is that it has to be one thing or the other. Digital or print. Credit cards or cash. We can't possibly have two things exist at the same time. People, therefore, gravitate to what seems newer and cooler, and then the other thing, whatever it may be, is bound for death. I think this leads to all of those "is dead" myths - not just that print is dead but...well you've seen everything that's been proclaimed dead.
Perhaps our collective shortened attention spans are limiting our ability to keep more than 1 thing in our heads, I dunno. But it's a real bummer.
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Great post Margie, I especially want to drive home the significance of 4, 5, 7, and 10. The community hears things like 'Failure is winning' so often that it becomes a type of law that is hard to challenge, even in your own mind. As someone who has little room for failure in most facets of what they do, I call bullshit on this one, and hope that others start holding themselves to a higher standard. Failing in my day job means that a mountain could fall on 26 miners, or compression seals could fail causing a catastrophic leak of bad air - which would mean almost certain death for the same miners. It coulld mean that the fasteners holding a bridge sheer under the weight of rush hour traffic. It means that my work deserves 100% of my attention, and that failure is NOT an option.
My finances and living situation is so precarious that failure in that regard means that it's going to hurt a lot more than it would most people if they lost their job. Missing a single paycheck means I'll probably end up homeless, and elderly family members that depend on me to stay in this situation would be SOL. I'd actually be fine homeless lol. but having others that depend on you kills out an option like that.
Ah, digital marketing, the one area where the consequences of my failure wouldn't be as far reaching. I haven't had a failure in a while in online work - but I do go through the motions of trying out several new tactics every month, and throwing some out for ineffectiveness. I never considered that kind of thing a failure, it's just how you format a win, and if you're drawing parallels between your Pinterest marketing strategy driving less traffic to your website than Twitter and real failures (things that have real world consequences), I truly envy your disposability.
I've never really heard that not having a plan is the right thing to do, but yeah that's ludicrous. 7 & 10 are results of the same thinking - the type of thinking that makes people associate the term social media with foolishness, and that has created a massive bubble that is going to make our utility a lot less valuable than it is in a year or so from now (I don't think it's a bubble in the sense it's going to pop. Traffic to most popular marketing blogs has been falling over the past year gradually, and it's obvious that the community is not as motivated lately). Being too bullish on digital marketing is like painting "noob" on your forehead.
Some of the other points are so ridiculous that I can' believe anyone thinks like that - has anyone ever really heard someone say that logo = brand? I have heard this about half a dozen times in the last 2 weeks, but have never heard anyone express a belief like that. I would also have to say that websites are increasingly becoming a piece of cake too. I still see people who have a terrible eye for design from time to time (They'll usually buy logos from Fiverr [or draw logos in paint that are equally as terrible] and then surface on Facebook touting their logo design agency or bragging about the deal they're getting on graphic design o_0 ) but I've saw many more average people that have worked their way up to legitimately capable designers in a matter of days using wordpress and a natural eye for design. Good design is often simple design, and you don't even need to know how to CHMOD (change permissions) on directories anymore to get a website online.
Great post though. I hope it puts a dent in that kind of thinking :)
@etelligence thanks for your great comment!
There are some people who probably could get by failing here and there - as you say, a lot of that probably stems from people who specifically are working within the confines of the online world. The rules are a bit more malleable and the consequences, at least on the surface, seem a bit less dastardly than they do in the real world. For folks whose lives depend on a regular paycheck, and for folks who, as you say, may be already living on the edge through no choice of their own, the idea of failure is indeed super frightening. That's not to say we shouldn't be motivational and say that in some cases going for it all is okay, but I don't think there should be so much judgment thrown at people who may be cautious.
Everything I've written about here is stuff I've seen online - that's what my whole book was about. In many cases I've seen these things in a lot of places, and from well-known people. It's a real shame, but more than that, it's kind of frightening. Hence my efforts to try to get the other side of the story out there :)
Thanks again!
Margie, great points here, in fact I am sure there are several blog post opportunities on each one, so i'm going to stick to my favorite point which is your number 1. The thing is that for those in the social media space, it becomes far to easy to get distracted by rules and misconceptions. As with anything in order to form a good opinion or understand where your business needs to be, you need to do a lot of research, a lot of reading and ask a lot of questions. Most non social businesses out there looking to get into the space simply aren't interested or motivated enough and so they take short cuts. This is where point number one comes in, if you believe agencies are all evil, then who on earth are you listening to for your advice? the best thing to do if you wont put the time in is get a hold of some reputable firms and start asking the questions. Authors of books - or ebooks, or frequently called upon speakers who own agencies are a good place to start to find your advice. because as youve listed it, there are a whole lot of misconceptions out there and for someone who isnt willing to invest the time in seeking answers - well following bad advice or buying in to these ideas can end up costing the business a heck of a lot more. Thanks for your awesome list, great place for people to start & get on track!
@Milaspage Well said, Mila. Granted I'm biased, but still, agencies can be such a great resource during these times when everything is moving so quickly. It's quite counter-intuitive that they're being vilified instead. I'm not really sure how or when that started, but it's most unfortunate.
@margieclayman There are always the "haters" out there, the ones who think the world is against them, and all orgnaizations are evil... i think smart people will realize that if they can identify a good strong firm to work with, then they will be far better off than the competition :) Works out better for the agencies too, no one wants a client who doesnt trust them- no value there. :)
@MargieClayman Love it, the myth destroyer! Thanks for a breath of fresh air on a Monday morning
@rcottle86 Thanks for the RT man. Glad you enjoyed it. Definitely had some interesting, novel insight.
RT @RicDragon: .@margieclayman wrote ALL agencies are EVIL: 12 Most Wacky Marketing Myths In the Online World http://t.co/sBREfWfy #12Most
@lizstrauss thanks for sharing my post, Liz. I hope evil @ricdragon didn't mislead *too* much :)
@PegFitzpatrick thank you Peg and top of day to you other wonderful ladies @lizstrauss @margieclayman
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