Is Your Online Social Networking Too Anti-Social?

You’ve been online for awhile now and you’re mystified by all the tools at your command. You have a Facebook Page, a Pinterest account, a Twitter account, an Etsy account, a Tumblr Blog and a Google+ page along with a Google blogger. You may have several more if you’re me. Yet, at some point you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it. Furthermore, is having all your interests dispersed so broadly diluting your main branding efforts? You may find that your social networking aspirations are not so social after all. 

There are several ways to look at this. Most online social applications all sport something a little different. Tumblr gives your more layout options, Facebook is... well Facebook is Facebook despite being a little archaic. Pinterest is... I don’t quite get why someone else is interested in what someone else likes yet but I'll get there I guess. The bottom line is each one is designed to further your social networking aspirations. If you’re just meddling in these applications for fun then so be it. But if you’re a business and you’re wondering why you only have 15 Facebook likes after months of trying or 8 Twitter followers after 3 years of diligent online networking, you may be suffering from an anti-social online presence.

What makes it anti-social? Well for one you’ve spent hours and hours on your website design. You’ve stressed about content, design, interface, and bringing your prospective clients great information about you and your company in one place. But now here is Facebook, and Twitter and Tumblr and Delicious and... you get the idea. You now think that because everyone else is doing it that you must. But have you ever considered you might be sabotaging your own brand? You’re diluting your message. Consider that your core target market may only use one or two of those applications. Half of those may not even be considered frequent users. Then consider that when they are using, are you bringing content that interests them and creating experiences that keep them engaged? Or are you worrying about your Twitter account where your customers may or may not be? 

Just like traditional networking, online social networking for business is such that you and your customers can only be in one place at one time. Additionally, just because Pinterest is fun doesn’t mean that’s where your customers are. 

This is a hard lesson. It’s hot it’s new it’s trendy and everyone is talking about this new social application. But is it enriching your marketing and networking; or is it distracting you from more fruitful and traditional activities like attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting or taking a training course and networking with peers? The truth is, most social successful social networking businesses have a strong bricks and mortar ground game. Online social networking enhances their customer’s experiences. Let me repeat that - online social networking enhances their customer’s experiences; meaning that these are most likely customers they already have or will have. Chances are these prospects are already within the sphere of influence. Besides do you really want your customers bouncing around between five different accounts to find you and see all of your content scattered about in different  places? Probably not. That’s like giving your prospective customers 10 different physical addresses to find your single store location. 9 out of the 10 of those locations has a sign giving them clues on how to find the real spot. Frustrating isn’t it?

Now you’re probably thinking, I want to cater to different clients so I have to be on all these sites. Well the old saying is true; 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. That also means that no matter how wonderful you think spreading yourself thin is, you will still only get a small percentage of business from those fringe sources and most of those will not prove profitable. Most of your references and support will come from sources you already know or by a direct extension of those contacts (i.e. friend of a friend or an acquaintance of a past customer). 

According to an article in LA Times September 14, 2012, “78% say that using social networks is just as important as networking in person. Then 42% of businesses report that a quarter of their new customers came through social media sites.” What this article doesn’t say if whether or not these businesses are strictly online companies or whether they have traditional brick and mortar storefronts. I’d bet on the latter. This write up also does not say or suggest what specific social media mechanism is being implemented by these organizations to measure or capture these customers thus producing these stastistics. 

I have been social media marketing for myself and business organizations for almost 7 years now. I can honestly say that designing a capture mechanism for tracking every single customer that originated online is no small task. It is easy for some businesses that have a strong eCommerce business model for which the applications and tech infrastructure supports such a process. However, other small businesses do not and can not implement the resources necessary to track every click and throughput action to their site in a complete online and automated fashion. That being true, how can you possibly stress about having only 30 Facebook Likes. Who really cares? This just may not be appeasing to your customer base. Furthermore, your peers who appear successful online are likely implementing door to door traditional efforts to strengthen their online game. Don’t take my word for it, ask them. You’ll find that they’re meeting people face to face and utilizing other means to refer people to their social platforms and spark interests.

The main thing to take from all of this is that online social media marketing or networking does not negate the need for the traditional approach. In fact, without using the fundamental principles of networking you’re destined to suffer a bit before working it all out. Additionally, now that sites like MySpace has re-invented itself and other social apps continue to expand and new ones emerge, think long and hard whether or not your brand will be diluted and diminished by spreading yourself even further. Also, don’t forget that little thing called your website, where you likely spent time, money and hosting fees to build and hold it. Are your customers going there anymore? Do you even need it? Time to hit the ground and find out what social networking access your prospective customers and existing customers really want. 

Believe it or not, all this spreading thin is probably making your business anti-social.