Is Social Media Marketing Risky?
The author relates that the most common question from clients is: "What are the risks?" Companies who are new to social media are very cautious about it, and generally suspect their dollars are better spent in tried-and-true advertising practices in established meda. In response, the author identifies ten common risks.
Risk #1: Your Campaign Doesn't Get off the Ground
The primary risk is: it may not work. The company may undertake a lot of effort an expense, and will not get results. In truth, it's unlikely that a social media undertaking will fail to produce any results at all, but the results may fall far short of the expectations created by media hype.
(EN: Fear of this risk is actually a good thing, as you can level-set. The greater risk is that they have no fear and expect immediate success as soon as their Facebook profile is entered).
The solution: keep at it. Social marketing is about the depth of relationships rather than their breadth, and while a company may look to head-count, it's far more important to build a devoted audience over time rather than a flash-in-the-pan effort that gets short-lived attention.
Of particular note, relationships are a two-way street. A common cause of a stalled campaign is a company that is being too one-sided, pushing information out and refusing to acknowledge the individuals who want to engage them in return.
Another common problem, next of kin to being unresponsive, is that campaigns are often too mercenary, focused on what the company wants to achieve (increased sales) rather than catering to the interests of the audience.
Another common problem is that people just aren't interested. Some products don't have a mass appeal, and they aren't particularly interesting. This may be an instances in which you need to appeal to a niche market rather than expecting a mass appeal.
Risk #2: Blogger Backlash
There is a risk of public humiliation if your attempts at courting the social Web are clumsy. You may be flamed by a high-profile blogger, or get scads of bad publicity from the callowness of your attempt to curry favor, and the stink of it may even hit the mass media.
You may be able to avoid it if you proceed gently and with great caution, but even should the worst happen, it is possible to recover and make a graceful recovery, though the black mark will take a lot of time to fade.
Risk #3: The Crowd Talks
Since social marketing counts on others to talk about you, rather than you talking about yourself (and controlling the message), chances are that people will voice their own opinions rather than the precise ones you want them to share.
However, people are going to talk about you anyway, and are going to express their own opinions. Social marketing gives you the opportunity to encourage the conversation in a positive direction.
Even "bad buzz" can be good. The example is given of Robert Scoble, a Microsoft employee who blogged from within the company and made some critical remarks of his employer. By being tolerant of Scoble, the company humanized itself and demonstrated it is not totalitarian or egomaniacal, which improved public opinion.
Risk #4: Bad Reviews
In the traditional media, an unfavorable review is generally short-lived and forgotten, but online, it remains available indefinitely.
(EN: I'd dispute that: most traditional media have Web presences, so a review in a trade journal also appears on its Web site.)
But on the bright side, social media is a two-way conversation, and you are generally able to respond to a poor or negative review. Responding to critics is touchy: you don't want to get into a flame war or feed the trolls. But at the same time, failure to respond is a signal that you're not paying attention.
It's also worth noting that, as you build your reputation online, others may respond on your behalf, which has an upside (it's generally more credible when a person defends a company they believe in rather than the company acting on its own behalf).
Risk #5: Fizzle
If the initiative gets off the ground, it may not have much longevity. In some instances, a "flash" of attention may be what you want - but in most cases, you'll want an initiative to have more of a long-term impact.
Most often, this happens due to lack of follow-through on the marketer's part: something is hung out there and they expect the momentum to carry itself with no further action on their part, when sustained momentum takes sustained effort. The marketer must be an active participant in the community to keep it rolling.
Some internal salesmanship is necessary to get the organization to embrace social media as an ongoing effort. It does not fit the advertising model, and is not a quick fix, but requires ongoing support to be successful.
Risk #6: Channel Conflict
Social media alone will not enable you to build a community; it must be a component of the ongoing marketing activities of the organization, and does not replace them. Of importance, your social media should complement, rather than conflict with, the messages being sent in other channels. Ideally, it will support other channels, and other channels will support it.
Risk #7: Too Much Too Soon
The idea of being "too successful" is also a risk. While not every SM effort results in a flash fire, some do, and being unable to handle the volume of response can be an embarrassment (a viral video that overwhelms our Web site with orders, a flood of comments on the blog that you can't keep up with, etc.). A cute term for this is catching a "fail whale."
Realistically speaking, you cannot control when this happens: a note posted on a blog with a small readership is re-posted to a larger forum, or catches attention of social bookmarkers, and you will be deluged. The only advice seems to be to have a contingency plan in place to deal with the influx as best you can.
If you catch a fail whale and are unable to handle it, you will need to go into damage-control mode to deal with the embarrassment (and frustrated users) that may result. You must also be ready to capitalize on the flash of attention to sustain momentum.
Risk #8: Not Being Proactive
In the current environment, it is more important than ever to "get out in front" of the news in order to influence what people hear about your company. Corporate blogs are an excellent way to do this, enabling an immediate reaction that is sent directly to anyone who cares enough to subscribe to the feed.
An example is given of a company that used the Web to respond quickly to rumors, even before the marketers and attorneys could agree on the content of a press release, and avoided what might have been a lot of negative backlash.
(EN: The author calls this a "risk" but it seems more like a potential benefit. Engaging in SM will not cause you to fail to be proactive, and in fact it provides an opportunity to be proactive. Perhaps the risk is that people will expect you to be more proactive?)
Risk #9: Bad Metrics
SM is highly measurable, which is only a problem in that traditional media are not as measurable, and if compared to them, your efforts may seem paltry.
For example, a print ad will claim a reach of the entire circulation of a publication (even if no-one opened to the page of the ad) and claim results of any increase in sales in the following month (even if they buyers never saw the ad). In the absence of proof, they can (and do) make wild claims of success.
Meanwhile, social media can be measured in every way: you know how many users saw a mention, how many people clicked through, how many people bought immediately, and the numbers seem pretty skimpy by comparison to the exaggerated figures marketing executives are used to seeing and claiming.
Moreover, social marketing is more like brand building than advertising - you're building image, not driving sales - and need to make the distinction clear to those who will criticize your "numbers."
Risk #10: Cold Feet
A major risk to social marketing is that companies and clients change their minds about it: if immediate results are not achieved (which, again, is not the point), they have doubts about whether it's worth the investment and are likely to abandon it, or at the very least choke off its support.
The author's solution for this is a bit of cheerleading, and a lot of level-setting, in making sure the stakeholders whose support is needed have realistic expectations and are willing to make a long-term commitment to a practices that is, by nature, a long and slow grind.