Comments on: Two Dirty Little Social Media Secrets

By: Social media marketing and Online PR essentials > Smart Insights Digital Marketing

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:49:56 +0000

[...] 2 Dirty Little Secrets About Social Media [...]

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:32:42 +0000

Well, it is obvious, but it also needed to be said. I think we can blame part of this attitude on @GaryV (love ya, man) and his overly simple explanation for social media success for the little guys. Of course, when reading into it a bit, it's also obvious that it does take a serious time investment (time = money, for all of us).

Thanks!

By: adamcohen

adamcohen — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:15 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts Angela – couldn't agree more. Creating the outposts is 10% of the work, at most.

By: adamcohen

adamcohen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:59:13 +0000

Thanks for the feedback Aaron – your “Tale of Two CMOs” series really gives much more insight to what I am generalizing here (link for other readers to latest in the series: http://blog.stroutmeister.com/2010/05/tale-of-t…).

By: Angela Connor

Angela Connor — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:16:37 +0000

Nothing annoys me more than people who say that social media is free. Are you kidding me, with all the time it really takes to reach success? I almost passed out when I heard a woman with the Red Cross say those very words at an event. I had to discount her words right then and there. You know Adam, I think the issue here is that many people think that creating the outposts is where the success lies but that couldn't be further from the truth. Oh, I've seen abandoned efforts and it sure isn't pretty. You have to pay for this work, and success is never free. Good post.

By: Aaron Strout

Aaron Strout — Sat, 29 May 2010 20:51:09 +0000

Adam, couldn't have said it better myself. The notion of social media being "free" is sort of like saying that doing e-mail marketing is free. While it's true that with enough elbow grease, one person can send e-mails out of their gmail or outlook account but to scale that effort is nearly impossible without more resources, services and tools. As you and Marc both point out, these are "good" problems to have because if you are scaling any of your marketing/customer engagement efforts, it means you're enjoying some success.

To your second point about "paid + earned," this is a critical point that we're working hard to impart to our prospects and customers. While earned media is ultimately the most valuable (and believable), without the scale and velocity that paid activities bring, it's tough to achieve critical mass in any meaningful timeframe. I've tried to highlight this concept in my recent "Tale of Two CMO's" series on my blog.

Thanks for sharing the straight dope! Happy long weekend.

Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout

By: adamcohen

adamcohen — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:41:29 +0000

Thanks Marc, and well put – “curation” is a great term that isn't often associated with social media. I think people are jazzed by “the big idea” more often than the long haul commitment required.

By: Marc Meyer

Marc Meyer — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:39:09 +0000

Adam, I remember telling someone and blogging about the point that social might be free, but I'm not…We can so easily equate this to the notion that anything done successfully leads to another set of “good ” problems. For example, selling lots of anything leads to increased labor, more customer service, additional management etc. etc. Thank you for pointing out that once your social media initiatives begin to take off-the work doesn't stop, it's really only just begun. As I was telling some folks during Beth Harte's weekly #imcchat- Some are more into the chase then they are into the curation.

By: Tweets that mention Two Dirty Little Social Media Secrets | a thousand cuts :: adam cohen's blog -- Topsy.com

Fri, 28 May 2010 17:24:14 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam Cohen and Jaime Punishill, Matthew O'Brien. Matthew O'Brien said: RT @adamcohen: New Post: Two Dirty Little Social Media Secrets http://bit.ly/8XI9zj [...]