Social media broke marketing. But in a good way. It created engaged, informed customers who quickly figured out they could learn more from each other than from the websites of corporations trying to market to them. Marketers reacted with fear by shoe-horning their old methods into shiny new channels; pouring millions into unidirectional, broadcast Facebook pages and stagnant Twitter feeds. Now marketing has broken social media. How did we manage to get it so completely wrong and what can we do to fix it?

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SOCIAL MEDIA: WTF?
mediaprofile.com
Michael O’Connor Clarke
Vice President, Digital & Social Media

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ABOUT ME
 Michael 1.0 = Tech hardware & software sales
 Michael 2.0 = Corporate Marketing & PR exec
 Michael 3.0 = Agency bloke & social media “pioneer”
http://michaelocc.com
@michaelocc
linkedin.com/michaelocc

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ALMOST FAMOUS

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ALMOST FAMOUS

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OVERTURE

6. source: @tomheg at http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com

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HYPOTHESIS
1. Marketing is broken
2. The Web offers the promise to fix it
3. Social Media enables Web’s real potential (Yay!)
4. Marketers freak out (OMG! People are talking back!)
5. Marketing shoehorns the same old crud into the shiny
new channels
6. Social Media is broken

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/catherinebennett/

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THREE FALLACIES
What we bullshit about when we
bullshit about bullshit…

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1 SIZE MATTERS
Follower & Fan counts are
inflated and largely meaningless

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CANADA’S TWITTER CHAMP
Suspect A

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Suspect A
Suspect A
Suspect A

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Suspect A
Suspect A
Suspect A
Suspect A Suspect A

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But why not…?

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IT’S A LIE
 You get dummy, shell accounts
 Most <100 days old, very low follower/friend
counts, average of 9 tweets per account
 Most accounts are filled with bot-generated
spam content
 You’re not buying an audience, you’re buying
crap

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IT DOESN’T WORK
 Metcalfe’s Law: “The value of a telecommunications
network is proportional to the square of the number of
connected users of the system”
 Michael’s Law: “The value of a social network is
proportional to the square of the number of engaged
contributors to the system”
 Followers and fans are only of any real “value” if they:
1. Have a pulse;
2. Have consciously chosen to follow or Like you, and;
3. Are actually engaged in spreading the word about you
among their own circles of influence

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BIG FAN COUNT != BIG ENGAGEMENT
Nearly 70 per cent of people who Like a brand
page rarely or never return to the page
(Source: Penn State U Study)
Source: Pagelever - reported on AllFacebook.com

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BIG FAN COUNT != BIG ENGAGEMENT

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BIG FAN COUNT != BIG ENGAGEMENT

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MORE CONNECTIONS
DOES NOT MEAN
MORE CONNECTEDNESS

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2 FAKE IT
…till you make it

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FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS
TWEET LIKE THIS
@TechnoBlort
TechnoBlort
Industries

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7 DEADLY SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING SINS
1. Sock puppets!
2. “Conversation Calendars” written by copywriters
3. Automated tweeting + zero-response monitoring
4. Transmedia promotion (same batcrap, different
batchannel)
5. Pushing news releases as status updates or blog
posts
6. Ignoring feedback, deleting comments or, even
worse, not allowing them
7. Thinking you can control the message

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BRAND SPAM

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STUCK IN A MESSAGE TRACK
From this…
To this:

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3 FISH WHERE THE
FISH ARE

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“At the heart of the Internet business is one of the great business
fallacies of our time: that the Web, with all its targeting
abilities, can be a more efficient, and hence more
profitable, advertising medium than traditional media.”
“The nature of people’s behavior on the Web and of
how they interact with advertising… has meant a
marked decline in advertising’s impact.”

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QUASI-PERSONALIZED CLUEHOLES
Leaky
Algorithmic
Marketing
Efforts
More at: http://ow.ly/b9YRC

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THE #1 SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKE

36. Social Media is like
Soylent Green…
It’s PEOPLE!
urce: http://newsevents.arts.ac.uk

38. PREREQUISITES
 A desire to be closer to your customer
 A belief that conversation can build a
bond of understanding
 A willingness to act on what you hear and
learn
 A tolerance for dissent – not everyone will
agree with you
 And one other thing…

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Website
Twitter
Facebook

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BUILD YOUR OWN HUB
 Why are you investing so much in building
a community someone else controls?
 Where’s the “Tweet this” button on
Facebook; the “Like” button for Twitter?
 When people find you out there, where do
you want them to end up?
 Create and curate!
 But… what do I write about?

41. Step One: Grow Big Ears
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niclindh

42. This is a BFD
source: http://bigeffingdeal.info/

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WHAT I’VE LEARNED
 If you’re genuinely interested in what your
customers want, they’ll tell you
 Talk to people; try not to be a dick
 Don’t self promote. Remember “The Because
Effect.”
 Tell great stories
 If someone starts telling you how to do it
right, chances are they’re doing it wrong
 Er…

44. JUST DO IT
 If you’re a small company
 Change now. You’ll win.
 If you’re an agency
 Push back. Tell clients they’re wrong. Refuse to
execute crap ideas.
 If you’re a consumer
 Talk loud. Be heard. Out the bad and the good.
 If you’re a big company drone
 Get porous with customers. Be human. If you
can’t fix it: leave.

45. When you think of the Internet,
don't think of Mack trucks full of widgets
destined for distributorships,
whizzing by countless billboards.
Think of a table for two.
@Man, 1997

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THANK YOU
mediaprofile.com
Michael O’Connor Clarke
Vice President, Digital & Social Media
+1.416.893.4941
mocc@mediaprofile.com
@michaelocc