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Scrooge’d up this years social media? Time for a New Years Resolution!
This has been a ball buster of a year for social media especially in Asia. If you are a small business then you know how discouraging it can be trying to maintain a Facebook page and wondering why you are even trying??? Well its not all your fault and much better bigger and better funded companies have failed gloriously so, if it helps any, you are in good company.
What the F*** happened!?
The part that is not your fault:
- Facebook cut way back on organic reach forcing everyone to buy advertising to be seen.
- Whatsapp became a big player and did nothing!
- Instagram is a huge player and did nothing!
- Sina Weibo is a huge player in China and created chaos and confusion
- Twitter remained itself. . .
This chart shows 4 of Hong Kong’s most visible local brands achieving terribly low scores on social media effectiveness.
What is your fault:
- You tried to do it yourself or you hired some dumbass intern because they “were young and cheap”. Ask yourself, when deciding on a CFO, Obstetrician, or who is going to fly your private jet do you say, “Give me the young cheap one”.
- Can your social media expert, even if it is you give three factors that affect post performance on Facebook? Well can they????
The answer:
Social media is not one thing. It is a wide network of interconnected media channels with 2 very important components that make it work: People and Technology.
- People is the number one answer why I hear so often “we are doing a good job on social media. People really seem to like our stuff”. But, in fact, the performance is #epicfail (see the picture). PR companies specialise in the “People” part of social media. All People experts are really pretty shit at it. Otherwise we would have perfect marriages, kids, be rich and thin and want to stay longer than 4 days when visiting our relatives. But we aren’t because we really aren’t that good with “People”.
- Technology is the equalizer. It is a streaming source of numbers that do not lie, make value judgements, tells you your ass looks fat or that your homemade pumpkin pie tastes store bought. Numbers are Zen, they just are. . . Technology drives all social media in the form of algorithms. Algorithms make determinations about “People” based on frequency of keywords, activity at different times of day, past patterns of behaviour and many other measurable actions. And you know what? Algorithms are pretty good at people. They are better at People then People are much of the time. Social media and digital experts (SEO, data analysis, database engineers), these are the social media gurus. They calculate based on past preference what needs to be posted across what channels to get maximum direct and residual effect. Residual being last search results or continued appearance in newsfeeds, downstream posting, etc.
So this year be smart, run your business like a business and make the hard choices based on “What makes you money!”.
Happy Holidaze,
Doug
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