Every day, businesses and entrepreneurs start their journey in social media advertising, some with more success than others. In this post, we will illustrate the most common mistakes made by those who begin with marketing 2.0. To do this, we will use, in a humorous tone, the story of an imaginary business owner who ventures to advertise his business on the Internet. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to…
The Made-Up But Real Story of Paco
Paco is the proud owner of a company dedicated to manufacturing and selling brake pads for tractors. Like everyone else, Paco is suffering the harsh effects of the crisis. But Paco, a fighter willing to do whatever it takes, is determined to try Internet Marketing because, apparently, it’s “what’s in.” It’s worth a try, it’s free, requires little time, and who knows, maybe it will even work.
So, Paco decided a few months ago to start a blog. Unfortunately, even Paco is aware that news in the “Business” of tractor brake pads is not exactly frequent. However, Paco is convinced to maintain a regular schedule on his blog to give it an active and dynamic appearance. So he has committed to writing a weekly post at all costs, whether there is news to share or not.
Despite his efforts and (in his opinion) novel ideas, the visitor counter does not go up. His brother-in-law mentioned that a good way to attract visitors might be “that social media thing.” Not entirely convinced it serves any purpose, Paco, who may not have much else but more morale than Alcoyano, has created all the accounts he could think of. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, … Since it takes more time than he thought to maintain so many accounts, he has even linked some to others so that when he publishes something, it updates on all of them. How clever Paco is!
Finally, it was Twitter’s turn. He has seen on TV that everyone talks about it, so there must be a reason. He is determined to extend his failure in marketing campaigns to a new network. Paco, with his rolled-up beret on which his wife has embroidered in large letters “Web 2.0,” plans under cover of darkness and with malice aforethought the definitive assault on the Internet in search of potential customers.
Paco has created his account @Frenos_de_Tractor. He will use his consistency to publish every day upon arriving at the office a couple of Tweets advertising his blog and his website, with a link to the latest post. Furthermore, when he publishes his new weekly post, he will send messages to his contacts to inform them and ask them to retweet him. He will even try to make jokes and funny messages about tractor brakes (if such a thing exists) always with a link to his blog and the hashtag #frenosDeTractor. How modern!
Paco, who is smarter than anyone, has devised a wide range of ideas to attract new followers. Periodically, he will follow massively and indiscriminately people he has never exchanged a word with. If after a few days they don’t follow back, he will unfollow them. Great, how has no one thought of this before!? He will also take special care of his most influential followers (for Paco, influential means having more followers). If he could get one of them to retweet one of his advertising messages… he would reach so many people!
Paco has programmed an automatic welcome message, with the eternal link to his blog. He has linked his account to his blog so that new posts are published automatically. He has configured Gamisfaction to do automatic #FFs on Fridays to his new followers. Paco has Klout, Socialbro, Paco has everything! He is doing everything he can and he is doing it well… It has to work!
However, neither his Twitter account nor his blog manage to take off. His wife, upon arriving home, finds Paco crying in a corner, hugging a pile of tractor brake pads, sobbing “I love you, they don’t understand us… please RT.”
Paco’s Mistakes
Why has his marketing strategy resulted in disaster? Why has Paco ended up crying in a corner? What did Paco do wrong? Essentially EVERYTHING, starting with believing he was smarter than anyone else. Some of the colossal mistakes he made are the following:
- He used social media as a marketing tool without understanding how they work, nor being convinced of their effectiveness.
- He underestimated the ‘cost’ in time and money that web 2.0 entails, and in doing so underestimated everyone who works in it.
- Lack of quality in his content, he only posted advertisements for his page, without providing news on other topics, RTs, personal opinions, etc…
- He performed mass follows and unfollows, to people he has never spoken to, without caring to get to know them, or talk to anyone.
- He sent advertising messages to his contacts, something that not only borders on spam but has likely earned him quite a few ‘unfollows’.
- He did not pay attention to the times he tweeted. The first hour of a workday is not the best time to publish a Tweet; it will hardly be read.
- He automated processes and linked accounts, attitudes that are received negatively and in the long run are more harmful than anything else.
Conclusions
People are not stupid and, in general, they avoid advertising. That’s why we channel surf during commercials. We are tired of people trying to sell us things. It is, to say the least, pretentious on Paco’s part to think that anyone in their right mind would follow an account that has blatantly been turned into an advertising channel for something as uninteresting as tractor brake pads. (Paco, face it, almost no one is interested)
Paco has not understood, not even remotely, that on social media, you follow people. He should have focused on creating his own identity on the Internet, that is, a reflection of his person, with bad days and good days. It is essential to share quality content that adds value to your account, including hobbies, some silly idea that comes to mind, and especially, have genuine interest in other people. The important thing is to have fun and meet people, not to do it out of obligation.
Business contacts, if they ever come, will be welcome. If you establish on social media a circle of sincere friendships with people who share common interests with you, and one day they need tractor brake pads, then they might turn to you. But this should be considered a secondary aspect, just as you don’t consider that in the ‘real’ world you have friends so they will buy your product (at least, you shouldn’t).
The last thing to ask about someone like our friend Paco, who has shown championship-level egocentrism in his use of social media, is: Could he really change his mindset? Would he come to be interested in other people? Or would he only pretend for a while and end up back to his old ways? If you want to give your opinion, we would be delighted to hear it. Feel free to leave your comment.
