Sometimes acerbic, often optimistic, always honest thoughts on music, marketing, advertising and life.
President and Creative Director, Reason Partners, http://reasonpartners.com
Founder, Flatacre Music Publishing, http://flatacre.mp
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Business Week
"Buzz and Awesomeness." The Measure for Social Media Marketing, Instead of ROI?
Business Week has some choice quotes in the article, "Beware Social Media Snake Oil"
"There is this default assumption that return on investment is the correct measure for everything," says Susan Etlinger, senior vice-president at Horn Group, a San Francisco consultancy.
It's good to finally see a growing backlash against many of these self-appointed social media gurus, mavens and sherpas. How can anybody claim to be expert in a field that's still attempting to figure itself out? To make matters worse, it appears the majority of these people have zero prior marketing background. So, it's not surprising that:
Consultants often use buzz as their dominant currency, and success is defined more often by numbers of Twitter followers, blog mentions, or YouTube hits than by traditional measures, such as return on investment.
Just as aggravating is the lexicon that's springing up around the whole thing. Words like "authenticity," "eco-system" and "conversation" are endlessly bounced around the echo chamber. In the process, "selling" has somehow become a filthy word. Oddly enough, check any socmed stream and you'll realize everybody seems to be selling something. Typically, themselves. Which is now called, "personal branding," I suppose. Though, given the nose pinching around selling, it's a bit of an oxymoron.
Business Week wisely warns:Hordes of marketing "experts" are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs. All the hype may obscure the real potential of these online tools.
I agree. There is great potential and some pretty good case studies so far. I just hope it isn't damaged before it really gets started by the "hordes" of socmed grifters.
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