Canadian Marketing Blog

Social Media Pollution

Consider the following scenario: Your plumber approaches you after completing a repair in your home. He seems like a nice enough guy, so you give him a chance when he begins speaking to you. He asks if you’d be interested in receiving his weekly newsletter. You are confused and a little bit uncomfortable. You decide to play along, though, and ask him what the aforementioned newsletter would touch on. He responds, “Oh, various items on plumbing and how you can get the best out of it. I have different tips on how to maximize the effectiveness of your toilet-water… I also review new fixtures and pipes that are hitting the market.”

At this point, you awkwardly decline, allow him to leave, and lock the door. Why did this happen? It’s simple; there is no need for an exterior relationship between the service (our weird, hypothetical plumber) and the consumer (you). When my water pipes are busted, I require the service. Beyond that, it’s not really part of my world – and I’m okay with that. So why do so many marketers try to force the same kind of irrelevant content down the public’s throat on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook? As these sites continue to grow in popularity and international reach, uninformed marketers are latching onto their coattails and, consequently, making a fool of themselves.

When done right, many brands have been quite successful utilizing this young medium. Clothing company H&M posts photos of their new seasonal collections and other interesting materials that their close to1.5 million fans on Facebook legitimately care about. As marketers, we are obligated to understand and properly take advantage of the trends that affect our consumers. There is no doubt that social media provides an opportunity for branding. However, that opportunity isn’t open to every business out there. You must have something unique to offer the consumer - beyond a price listing or link to your website. If there is no demand for additional material, don’t provide it. You’ll just be polluting an emerging media that consumers are still interested in.

So before you hop on the social media bandwagon, please take a minute to consider if anyone wants you going along for the ride. After all, it’s already pretty crowded out there.

Brook Johnston @marketingman.ca

Great article and timely. For me the rule for brand participation in social media is - if it's not useful, it's not welcome. I think the idea of the "relationship" with consumers has been completely over blown. Some thoughts on the nature of relationships with brands here http://www.grumpybrit.com/?p=49

I enjoyed your insight, Simon. As you said in your post, it's about "continually adding relevant value"...

As always, it's about supply and demand. If nobody wants you, just stay home.

But isn't social media the ultimate "supply and demand" market? If you are spreading tomsthing that no one is interested in, no one will follow you? Who is to say that just because you are not interested in what your plumber has to say in his newsletter, others won't be?

Well said Brooke. It is nice to read an article that speaks to the idea that SMM is not desirable for everyone's business.

As an instructor of Social Media Marketing to business start-ups, I agree with your article. I have entrepreneurs in my classes that are starting new restaurants, booking keeping services, handy man services, trucking companies, mechanical services etc. You get the idea, a broad spectrum of products and services. Some take my class and ask "Well does any of this apply to me?" Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.

Even though many of their customers will only be interested in hearing from them when they have a problem ie leaky roof, I think there are opportunities, like you mentioned, to connect with current and potential customers to create brand loyalty and differentiate themselves from their competition. As David Merrman Scott puts it, they can highlight their position of thought leadership through in a cost effective way through SMM.

I do not promote polluting the web and customer email accounts with tons of content wich will ensure a backlash from your customer base, but content created in a well thought out manner can benefit even those customers who may only have a broken toilet once a year, but can save on their water bills because their plumber helps them understand water saving measures available to them in the marketplace.

Thanks again for the post.

You've hit the nail on the head. Why do marketers insist on using the mass/OOH method of advertising in a medium that allows you to be unique and speak directly to people?
For sure, the future of social media marketing lies in segmentation, and giving consumers the choice of exactly what it is they want to hear from you and how. It's hard to believe that notion hasn't caught on yet.
Thanks for the great post.

I think a lot of this lies in the fact that not all brands have reached a point where they even WANT to have one to one conversations with consumers. Why talk to one person when you can speak to the masses? They are unaware of the rippling effects of building relationships and communities around their brand.

As opposed to whether "anyone wants you going along for the ride", one might want to identify where they should engage.

For every niche, there's probably an audience, but its important to contribute rather than pollute.

It's also important to acknowledge social media as a process. All too often companies think they're participating by creating a dozen tweets, uploading a couple videos, and maybe making an FB fan page. This is a great example of pollution. Without a strategy and metrics, the lack of a plan (or goal for that matter) becomes muddled and the social media involvement is soon abandoned.

In a way, use of social media like growing a brand through a new channel of opportunity. The process takes time and commitment or it only results in more social media pollution.

I may be wrong, but I thought, based on the babble, that Social Media is the organic response to society's drive to choose when and where they are communicated with and by whom. If this is the case, then surely the question of whether this is a mass medium or a targeted medium is moot: from the communicee's point of view it is direct and one on one.

The problem is in the misuse and warped expectations of cyber media. The warped expectation is that cyber media, being effectively free, should do what all other media have historically done: build brands, announce promotions, answer questions, advise, and, finally, consummate the sale.

The misuse is the implementation of programs to achieve all this, in random, tactical bursts, without any understanding of how people are responding to each message or what they are looking for in the next.

By understanding the role of all media, incorporating them into an intelligent, consumer based strategy designed to meet the customers need for information, help and (God forgive me for saying this) relationships, organizations can achieve paradigm shifting results. Canadian Tourism Commission is one such example.

Simon, could not agree with you more! When it comes to social your audience is all you have and you either connect with them or loose them rather quickly. Send links to things items of interest and your viewers are in, send ads for purple pills or some other item that they have no connection with... they are gone. In today's fast paced world of short attention spans authors must stay on point and deliver concise messages quickly!