Social Media: Quality Over Quantity

So often I've come across a big brand on social media and discovered that they have some obscene amount of accounts attached to their name. I'll take some time and look through them and find that, more times than not, their mess of pages is unorganized, under-resourced and lacking the appropriate effort necessary for success. I always wonder what the point is of having so many touch points with their customers if none of them are any good.

Many companies feel it necessary to have a general page, a customer service page, a page for a specific line, a page for company employees and whatever else they can think of. These pages usually come in the form of a half-dozen Twitter pages, a Facebook page (or two), a couple Instagram feeds, a Pinterest page, a couple LinkedIn pages and possibly a Google+ page or two. I'm assuming that the thought is, "We need to get to EVERY potential customer, on every site, and address any possible concern, all the time." At last check, 73% of online adults use social media sites, and that number is larger when you consider teens on social media sites. This means there are hundreds of millions of people, or customers, online and these brands feel they need to reach every one of them.

Social media marketing is a lot like traditional marketing in the fact that you can't reach every person every time. You simply need to be positioned in the places where your audience spends their time, and be available when they need you or your services. So many times companies think they HAVE to be everywhere. Speaking as a consumer, that just makes it more of a hassle.

One example is Xbox Live. They are an online service offered by Microsoft that allows you to play video games online with people across the world and it crashes... often. One day I was having issues and I decided to check Twitter to see if other people were reporting similar issues. When I couldn't find anything I decided to tweet at Xbox Live to ask if they were having issues, or if it was somehow my problem. When I searched I found a regular XboxLive handle, a Xbox Live Support handle and a Xbox Live forum handle, among others. Now, I wasn't confused with which to use, but I did wonder why they had three accounts. Why would people tweet to Xbox Live if it wasn't support based? Do they really get enough non-support traffic to justify having split accounts? What was the forum handle for? Was that for people to talk about the brand? Why wouldn't that be part of the main handle? It made little sense to me as both a marketer and a consumer.

I was talking to a friend recently who manages all of the social media accounts for an international brand. They hired her to take their social media from nothing to something. She told me that when she came on board they started with a single Facebook page and Twitter account. For the first year all they did was manage the hell out of those two accounts. They posted all different content and touched on all of the various segments of their business. After a while they began to notice dramatic trends in the engagement on their page, for example, every photo that they posted received massive amounts of traffic. This clued them in to the fact that photo-centric social networks were worthwhile for their brand. In response to this information they started Instagram and Pinterest pages, which have been very successful.

Something else they learned was that posts on a specific part of their business, in this case weddings, were very popular. They had received numerous questions and interactions regarding their wedding services. Since this section of their business was also a strategic priority for their marketing they decided to start a blog focused on it that answered the questions they were getting; it has since become a huge part of their online platform.

The moral of the story is to focus on the quality of your pages rather than the quantity. The goal is not to get as widespread as possible as fast as possible. The goal is to provide valuable content to your audience so they will connect with you and purchase from you. Start with the basics - Facebook and Twitter - and then let your audience let you know what areas they'd like to get more information on, and on what types of social networks they'd be most inclined to interact with you. If you can find a reason to separate your audience into multiple accounts and pages then do so AFTER you have a reason to believe you audience will appreciate it.

The Perfect Solution: The Web World's White Whale

So often in life we're faced with a problem that has several possible solutions. We then have to analyze our potential paths and determine which one achieves most of the desired outcomes. In some rare cases you get to find one solution that solves everything and reignites your faith in God and all of humanity. Unfortunately this doesn't exist in the web world.

When creating, redoing, or just refreshing your website, there will be hundreds of minor problems/choices that you'll have to address along the way. Everything from functionality to design will need to be sorted out. This makes the task extremely daunting and can slow a web project down to a slow crawl in no time. So often everyone obsesses with finding the "perfect" solution: "There must be a way to get everything right the first time." Well, from my experience, when it comes to websites, there is no way to get everything right on the first try. 

This can be frustrating for the more "detail-oriented" among us, while in actuality embracing the concept that "it won't be right the first time" is much better for the overall health of your website. Accepting that you are going to make your best guess up front allows for infinitely more freedom with the creation of the website. It allows you to try some things that you might otherwise have skipped; those "crazy" ideas that push the risk/reward line. In addition to the potential of something wonderful happening, you can launch sooner with a product that is better than what you have today. As the famous quote goes, "Don't let best get in the way of better."

The other, more important reason that stressing over every detail at once is a waste of your time is that no matter what you come up with, you're wrong. How you think your users want to interact with you is more than likely not how they actually want to interact with you. The wonderful thing about digital marketing is that it is built upon the "guess and check" method. When you start a Pay-Per-Click campaign you cast your net wide, find out what works, and narrow it from there. When you start a social media campaign you try all kinds of different types of posts and a wide range of content. After a while you see what your audience responds to and you work that more into your content calendar. 

Well, this is how your website works. You'll find that, no matter how "perfect" it is, there will still be unexpected problems and adjustments. You'll find that your customers use your website in ways you never could have imagined. You'll notice that some customers don't use search bars and some ONLY use search bars. You'll find that some customers like to wander through your website and like clicking through your navigation because it puts the content into context. Contrarily there will be those that want to find their content as quick as possible. 

The moral of the story is that fretting over each and every web decision is about as useful as a wedding cake at a bowling alley. Put your best guess out there and let your customers tell you what works. If you're stuck between a few ideas then try them all. Use A/B testing combined with Google Analytics to tell you which format worked the best and change your site accordingly. Figuring out which font to use for your links shouldn't wake you up at night. There is no such thing as the perfect solution.

Specialize or Generalize?

It might be because I now work in a medical setting, full of specialists of one type of medicine or another, but I find myself wondering if it is better to specialize in a specific skill set, or attempt to learn "everything" and make yourself valuable in many areas. This is a hard question to answer because so often companies either want someone that can do everything, (to avoid having to hire multiple people), or they want someone that specializes in a specific area. Specializing means you risk being pigeon-holed to one career path, but generalizing means that it takes longer to be viewed as an expert in any specific area.

This question is one that echos across many areas as more and more businesses are tasked with the same question. Marketing agencies, for example, have experienced whiplash with that question. A few years ago, when I started, the boutique agency was thriving and seemed to be the future of the marketing landscape. Just a year later and it seemed that everyone was struggling to accommodate clients that wanted more and only wanted to deal with one agency. Agencies now had to learn new trades or expand with new specialists. As the pendulum swings back, and now that the number of marketing channels grows daily, we again see a rise in agencies, or consultants, that pick one area and specialize in it.

Someone once told me that to be a successful manager you have to know 80% of everything that is going on with all of your departments. You don't have to be 100% committed to any specific discipline, but you should know the big picture and be able to operate effectively within it. I think the same should be applied to both a young professional and a young business. It is important to not only understand the industry or discipline that you claim to specialize in, but to undertand how that discipline functions in relation to the areas closest. So if you run a social media agency than you should understand how it works with advertising or PR, and be able to answer questions, and facilitate as needed.

As an employee you should know your area, but also know how it fits with other departments. If your specialty is one that overlaps with other areas it would be extremely helpful to learn as much as you can about the other areas to be able to put your work in context. The same way you would want to understand your competitive landscape or marketplace, you want to be aware of your professional landscape. Find out if you have a limited skill set, (In which case you want to make sure you're the best at what you do), or if you know a little or a lot about many thing. Then you can figure out if you need to expand your base, or start to grow in a few areas. Either way this question brings about an interesting discussion: which is better, to be a master of your craft, or a jack-of-all-trades?

SEO vs. User Experience: Where Do You Draw The Line?

I know what you're probably thinking, "Doesn't proper SEO make a website easier to use?". The answer to that question is yes... sort of. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization should, by default, make your website easier to navigate. When you address SEO you build your site so that Google will be able to "crawl" your pages and assign meaning to your website. So you go and add links, and assemble a coherent site map and then design pages with "obvious" content. This way Google, and theoretically your customers, can peruse your site and find what they need.

That all sounds well and good, but there are some areas where SEO can hurt the overall user experience on your website. One thing I've run into many of times as a marketer is people that try to over optimize. They insist that everything must be keyword-filled and every web decision must be made with SEO in mind. They don't understand that people use sites, and read content, in a different way than Google's spiders. Because of this they sacrifice several key areas of their web quality to attempt to show up as high as possible in search results

The first problem you run in to is your actual written content. I've heard from many people, and have experienced myself, that writing for SEO is counter-intuitive to writing a flowing and cohesive piece. The idea that specific keywords have to be inserted into sentences and paragraphs jams the creative flow of words. I've written many blog posts for clients that start as great ideas and, after optimized, are left as boring and generic posts. It makes it difficult to write catchy headlines, and enticing subheads. This is the result of wanting too much to squeeze every ounce of "Google Juice" out of your content, and the effect is a website that doesn't promote being read, and by extension, being explored.

Another area where you can over optimize is with your overall web content architecture. I've seen many people that insist that they house their blog internally on their site, or insist that every piece of content they can publish exist somewhere on their website. They forgo using easy third-party tools because they don't get credit for the content. They don't want to miss any possible opportunity to gain favor with Google. This makes for websites that are dozens of pages deep. They have sites that require a ton of clicks to drill down and find the information you need, and then they are confused when the find that no one is willing to search and find certain pages.

So the question becomes, "Where do you draw the line?". The answer to that question is simple; do all of the SEO that helps people navigate your site and/or exists in the background. Make sure that your meta tags, alt tags, title tags, etc. are all in place and make sure you have keyword links and page titles whenever possible. All that being said, your site is supposed to be designed with the end-user in mind. It should be created to provide the easiest path from your homepage to your purchase page. Your first priority should be to create the best content you can and make people want to look around your page.

SEO is not only a worthwhile endeavor, but should be considered a "must-have" in your digital marketing strategy, but, like most things in life, you can have too much of a good thing.

Marketing Agility

"Your company, no matter how large, should be able to maneuver like a jet-ski rather than a barge"

My career thus far has consisted of working on small projects, short run accounts, or with complete autonomy, which allows for quick changes and exploration into new areas. Work at small marketing agencies allows you to do pretty much anything; with your only hindrance being budget. Now that I am a part of an organization that employs well over 10,000 people, with a brand that is known across the world, I am rapidly becoming acquainted with the red tape, politics and overall bureaucracy of large businesses.

Marketing should be a dynamic environment. It should ebb and flow. An internal marketing department, with a staff large enough to accomplish any task, should be able to maneuver with ease between campaigns, initiatives and progressive ideas. Having nearly unlimited budget and resources should allow a department to create truly innovative and ground-breaking marketing.

This piece is not meant to be an indictment of my workplace- a place with this much prestige and tradition has to be cautious- but instead is meant as a cautionary tale. Marketing is a creative endeavor. The goal of it is to reach people, and I don't mean just to shoot a message at them, but rather to REACH people: speak to them. The best marketing and advertising cuts through the noise and affects people. It evolves and grows with a demanding audience and exists across platforms and media. There is no way to accomplish this when moving your marketing department is comparable to turning a barge. Your marketing should exist in the present and redirection should be something that is able to be done, and done regularly.

Think about it: how many of the marketing technologies that you use today were around a year ago? What about five years ago? If it takes you six months to set up a Facebook page, or a few years to set up a website, how far will behind will you be?