We recently did some work with Felton Road winery and owner Nigel Greening added both Twitter and Facebook logos to his website but both with crosses through them. The thinking was he did not conversations in cyberspace – the message is talk to us we are real people not some Internet conversation.

I really liked the stand and thought it was cool.  It also kind of made me think that while many are struggling with the shear weight of the amount of work social media marketing entails to turn your back on it and focus on the marketing that leads to direct results seems like a brilliant strategy.

But do I agree with this strategy? Probably not. Whether Nigel likes it or not people/customers/potential customers are talking about Felton Road on Facebook, in Twitter, via You Tube and in my opinion he should be there involved in that conversation.

But it more importantly that strategy has had me weighing up the pros and cons of social media marketing. Just something to thing about.

Social Media Marketing – The Positives

  • Potential to create a relationship with customers and brand loyalty;
  • Customers become brand advocates virally spreading the marketing message to others;
  • The message of which can be spread rapidly across many;
  • Including all age groups and demographics,
  • A brand personality can be created and reinforced easily through social media tone;
  • Opportunity for direct informal customer feedback; and
  • The supposed low cost of creating profiles and pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Social Media Marketing – More Questions Than Answers

  • Are you really building relationships of value? Are customers acquired through social media likely to be returning ones?
  • Social media marketing is very time consuming – who is going to maintain and manage your marketing? Is it necessary to have a consistent voice across all your marketing? Are you happy that you or your staff can respond professionally and creatively all the time?
  • The more fans or followers the better, but where is the financial return coming from and for what?
  • What about negative Word Of Mouth? What will you do if you suddenly see negative feedback? Do you have time to respond to each and every criticism?
  • Is social media marketing really low cost? When you take into account the amount of time required, the ongoing staff training, and the possibly low return – what is the real return on investment? Is it even measurable?

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