The Boy Who Cried Social Media Wolf

Everyone knows this story by now, the boy cried “wolf” too many times when there was no wolf at all. Then, when the wolf showed up, no one would listen to him because he had mislead them so many times before.

Let this be a lesson to those creating content for social marketing purposes. If you spew out a bunch of crap just to have content, people will stop paying attention. This is also true with where you put your content. It should be just as strategic and targeted what you say, as where you say it.

Here’s an example: Company X has created a video that shows how their new plastic egg container keeps eggs safe while being transported. They posted the video on You-Tube and created a Facebook fan page. The five people in the company’s marketing department have sent “suggestions” to their Facebook friends to join the Facebook page. This is fairly common for companies just starting out with social media. Once a week, they post the video on their Facebook fan page and promote the locations where they are going to be doing demos at local grocery stores.

The problem: Their Facebook fan list is not growing and sales are not rising. That’s because they are sending the same message to the same people, who aren’t necessarily the target for what they are selling.

Here’s a more effective approach: Who shops and cooks the most in a household? Moms! There are tons of mommy bloggers that seek out new products all the time. Research to find the ones with the most followings already, and then ask them to come be a guest at the live demonstrations. Record the product demos on video and offer to give the footage to the mommy bloggers, so that they have content for their blog.

Blogger outreach creates consumer trust that is way more valuable than a repetitive sales pitch. Lots of companies are using the blogger outreach approach. It provides an opportunity for user-generated versions of the sales message/ product review to be spread to highly targeted audiences.