Web 2 Expo SF 2009: Why Social Media Marketing Fails - and How to Fix It

I had the chance to sit in briefly on the “Why Social Media Marketing Fails” panel featuring Peter Kim, Charlene Li, and Jeremiah Owyang.  The discussion centered around the measurement of social media marketing efforts and the growing need for better accountability.

At one point, Charlene asked the audience to members to raise their hands if they were meaningfully measuring their social media efforts - a small sample went up.  The follow-up question, when asked how many were engaging in social media marketing in general, showed quite a bit more hands from the packed audience.  Her point was simple and spot on - start measuring your efforts or your budgets will be capped or cut.

Peter made an interesting point as well and brought back into focus the need to keep track of the bottom line. As he reminded us all, the marketing department has often escaped the traditional modes of accountability within the organization.  While there have been many successful measures taken to add structure to internal processes, the default position of marketing has been “we’ll make it up in brand equity” (love that one).

Jeremiah added some interesting insight into another aspect of failure - engagement.  He pointed to an example of a financial services client that they advised to not pursue a social media strategy.  The main reason behind the guidance was the internal protocols that prevented employees from actually engaging with customers via the social tools.  If there aren’t any real people at the helm, how social can it really be?

Jeremiah followed up with another take at the engagement model.  Citing Wells Fargo, he showed that engaging customers via their lifestyle or workstyle could actually be a very successful mode.  As he mentioned, Wells Fargo created their Guided By History blog which actually connected them with exactly the right kind of customer.

Tags: #w2e