I have a confession to make. I’m an internet marketer, and I love social media. I talk about social media marketing (SMM) here on our blog, as well as the very social platforms I talk about. I use it on a daily basis to help our clients, as well as our company. I’ll be the first to say that there is (almost) no online marketing campaign worth it’s salt without at least a nod to SMM.
But.
BUT…
Enough is enough. When I see a post like I came across today, the teeth gritting and gnashing begins. I can’t help but think about the business owners out there who are struggling to figure out this whole social media marketing thing, only to see things like this in their Twitter feed:
Why Marketers Should Be Paying Attention to Twitch https://t.co/dtocDJ1uRp
— Jey Pandian (@jeypandian) January 17, 2017
I’m not attacking Jey. He’s a great guy, knowledgeable in SEO and all things marketing, and has been in online marketing almost as long as I have. Besides, all he did was share the article. -And it’s the article I’m having issues with.
Twitch, if you don’t know, is social platform hosted by Amazon. Although they market it as a gamers’ platform, users have the ability to live stream anything from gameplay to cooking shows, art shows and more. While they’re live streaming, watchers can respond in text and the user replies live in voice – so Twitch is also very social.
Which, of course, is what has marketers salivating.
Therein Lies the Rub
I really don’t have anything against Twitch, and the article writer has some good points. -But I have to ask you a question.
Remember Vine? Twitter bought Vine back in 2012, eager to tweak it for the masses. Marketers pushed Vine like corner drug dealers. A few examples:
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Vine for Marketing, Hubspot, Feb 2013
- 6 Examples of Content Marketing with Vine (that you can do, too), KissMetrics, Jan 2014
- Brand Marketing on Vine: How to Sell Yourself in 6 Seconds, SocialTimes, Sept 2014
Less than six months after that last post, posts started talking about how Vine stars were jumping ship. Yet another social media platform bites the dust. In the meantime, all those efforts, all that content, all those six-seconds-to-watch-50-hours-to-make pieces are going to go sleep with the fish.
Should I mention that Pornhub, the top online porn site (according to them), offered to buy Vine? Whether it was a joke or not, can you imagine? Imagine someone clicking your Vine link (because you haven’t taken it down yet), and it going to PornVine. What would that say about your brand, hmm?
“So what,” you say about the created content. “The content did it’s job, and now it’s time to move on.”
True. True. And that’s easy to say for the big brands with money to spare. But what about the guys still trying to make it off the ground floor? What about the people that read our marketing blogs and pour over those “you should really use this social platform if you want to make it online” posts? What about the poor saps that waste so many hours trying to set their businesses up for the next great social platform?
Business Owners, Use Social Media Marketing Responsibly!
Listen business owners. Here’s the truth. The truth is that social media marketing works. It does. However, you have to use it responsibly.
Do your research. How new is this platform? Is it really something that you believe your potential customers will find value in? If it’s been around for awhile, are your potential customers actually using it?
Consider the cost of upkeep. Social media graveyards, where an account is started and then left to grow cobwebs, are a major brand mistake. Don’t start a platform you can’t keep up. What will it take to upkeep this social media platform? Can you afford to keep the platform going? Do you have enough time? For example, I spend well over 20 hours a week on social media, even with some automation. If you don’t have the time, can you afford to hire someone?
Use more than one basket. Vine is dead; it closed for good as a social platform January 17, 2017 – just last Tuesday. Had you invested your entire social media marketing into Vine, you’d be suffering right about now. This is one of the reasons you always have more than one path of revenue and traffic to your site. Keep your mind open; be willing to try new things. Keep your time costs down; only try what really seems viable.
Final Thoughts
As an internet marketer, I appreciate being pointed to Twitch as a potential marketing opportunity. As a business person, I cringe whenever another SMM platform opens up. You can never tell which ones are worth investing in just by looking, and if you go off of the articles that always swarm the Net, you should invest in all of them.
However, always remember that social media marketing is not an “all in” frat party. Go ahead and be mad (as in, crazy) if you want, but have a method to your madness. Look before you leap!
If you’re ready to jump into Social Media Marketing with both feet, we’re your life saver. Contact Level343 for the right way to do SMM.
