Doing Social Media Wrong
Glen Allsop at PluginHQ points at two “big companies” that have taken a stab at Social Media Marketing, and blew it: 2 Social Media Marketing Failures
The idea behind this blog post is to have a look at two well known brands who failed miserably at Social Media Marketing, a little look at what they did and what they could have done to run the campaign better.
I guess the positive thing to come out of all this is that Social Media Marketing really is coming into the main-stream marketing and big brands are recognising that a successful SMM (Social Media Marketing) campaign can do wonders for their brand and sales.
Walmart
Walmart have announced that they are soon to launch their third attempt at SMM by allowing users to review content on their site, yet if they handle it like they did their last campaign its going to go into the same direction.
What did they do? Walmart launched a Social network site launched at kids on the Walmart website named ‘The Hub’.
Why did it fail?
Glen gives 3 reasons, but I believe that this is the important one:
* Kids Couldn’t Communicate - Whats a social network without kids being able to leave private messages or send emails to each other? You have to get the basic requirements right to make things a success
Precisely, internal communication is what makes a Social Network a network. Without the ability to communicate with each other, share thoughts and ideas, what is the point?
Glen’s second example is:
Titleist
Titleist are a major golfing product manufacturer and probably not a name you would associate with any forms of Internet Marketing let alone Social Marketing but they actually came pretty close to doing a good job.
What Did they Do? Created a website for a fictional golfer and promoted it offline using formats like television advertising during major golf tournaments.
Why did it fail?
* No Call-to-Action - Although the site really isnt that bad theres no call to action for people to share the content or any incentives for them to upload music and videos which the site hopes they will do
Again, Glen gives 3 reasons for the fail, but this is always going to be the kicker in any marketing campaign. If there is no call to action then it’s not marketing, it’s a press release or an announcement.
Have you spotted any other mistakes in the field of Social Media Marketing? If so, please share with us in the comments, and we’ll talk about them as well. What did they do wrong, and how could they have done it better?
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What is the “call to action”?
The “call to action” is a part of the marketing message where you ask the reader/viewer to do something, like buy your product.
For example, in the yellow box above I have a set of calls to action:
Subscribe, Share on Twitter, and Leave a Comment (which you did, and I thank you.)
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