Social Media: Marketing Morass?

C.J. Hayden asks, Social Media Marketing: Boon or Boondoggle?

It seems that everywhere you turn these days, someone is promoting social media as the lowest cost, highest impact marketing channel available for small business owners. And that right there is a problem. Far too many people ARE promoting this idea — many of whom are those likely to benefit if you make use of their media channel, enroll in their social media class, or hire them to manage your social media for you.

But what is the reality? A recent study reported by eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007956 ) shows that only 42% of small business owners who use social media marketing are receiving sales leads from Facebook, 36% from LinkedIn, and 16% from Twitter. That’s a pretty poor showing from a marketing channel that’s being touted as so effective.

Her conclusion:

There is still no “silver bullet” solution for marketing your professional services at zero cost in your spare time. You still have to invest time and money to identify likely prospects, follow up with them to deepen relationships, and have sales conversations that expose you to rejection. And that will be true no matter what new technology for marketing is invented next month or next year.