Earlier today I tweeted the following question from our 10e20 Twitter account:

twitter-smm-overhyped-quest

I received some interesting responses that I thought I’d share on the blog:


Via googleandblog: “Social Media ROI projections are the most overhyped, as well as outside companies saying they will do the tweets and posts for them.”

I agree that ROI projections can get pretty ridiculous — it can be hard to tell a client what they’ll get out of a social media marketing campaign vs. what they expect to get (like “No, I can’t guarantee you’ll get 10,458 links from this or that you’ll sell 15,000 more products”). However, I don’t see anything wrong with taking over your client’s Twitter account, at least at the beginning of a campaign or when introducing them to Twitter and teaching them how it works/how to use it. Sometimes clients need a good demonstration before they can take the reins and manage the account diligently. That’s not to say you should permanently manage your client’s account — I think that would be too time consuming and could be a missed opportunity since they know their brand and products better than you do — but some initial guidance can be a good thing.


Via brianchappell: “Viral videos: manufacturing viral is much more difficult than it can seem let alone tying it back into the product or any ROI. I feel like many times there are better places to start with most SMM campaigns.“

Absolutely. All it took was one Lazy Sunday for everyone to go “OMG, we need to do a viral video! It’ll bring us so much traffic!” without really understanding what it takes to actually create and market one. You need an idea, a script, people who are decent in front of a camera, equipment, editors…and that’s before you can even launch and market the damn thing! Sure, some basic videos of people falling off tables spread like wildfire, but for lots of brands they need an actual strategy behind a viral video, and it’s a lot harder than they think.


Via steph_woods: “Using Twitter to market your product e.g., real estate. It only works for certain user groups.”

Via melaniemitchell: “Facebook fan pages. Not every company/product/person needs one. Need to find your peeps & go where they are.”

Both Melanie and Steph bring up a fundamental problem with social media marketing. It’s not necessarily about creating 100 profiles at all the major social news, networking and media sites and then just letting them all gather Internet dust (which I’m pretty sure is just Cheetoh dust). As Melanie said, you need to find your audience and engage with them wherever they are. Don’t be the sad mom who tries to get away with shopping at Forever 21 — that’s not where you need to be.


Via TheOceanAgency: “That social networks are something new. The technology might be new but concept is ancient.”

Lots of people are like “ZOMG, networking socially?! What a concept! I must try this out, dagnabbit!” Social networking ain’t new, folks. The medium may be different, but the fundamental principles are the same. Don’t forget the kindergarten lessons of networking: be engaging, reach out to your audience, make them feel appreciated and important, all that good stuff. Whether you’re trying to make a lasting impression and build contacts in person, at a mixer, or online, many of the core tactics are identical.


Via oatmeal: “Lots of Twitter followers and tweeting all day = business success.”

Via Matt_Siltala: “People talking about all this traffic but never taking it further than ‘it brought me 100k visitors!’ What about the links?”

Ah, the ol’ Underpants Gnome logic of business. You have to have some sort of game plan. What’s your objective here? If it’s to increase sales, then how are you going to do it using social media marketing tactics? If it’s to build links, what are you going to do? Figure out what you want to accomplish and THEN use social media marketing to help attain those goals, not the other way around.


Via jasonarango: “Saying you’re an expert on something that’s changing all the time.”

Via ItsDUHnise: “People who claim to be in social media for a living. Never seen so many self-proclaimed experts w/ so little cred!”

Everyone with a Facebook profile is an expert nowadays, right? There’s a lot more to social media marketing than you think. New sites pop up all the time, old sites change how they operate, and different clients have unique needs. A true social media expert is able to keep up with trends, know how to accommodate a campaign to their clients’ specific needs, and is able to use all facets of social media marketing in order to garner success.

What have we missed here? What other things about social media marketing do you find to be way overhyped? Drop your comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for more awesome blog posts and marketing tips. :)