Massive Work on a Tweet that Croaked -- What Went Wrong?

99.99% of my work is ultra-collaborative. I don't think consensus is the issue. Of course, you can make it the issue easily.

I believe someone clearly didn't get the WSO on how social media works.

Again, I'd argue they're missing the boat.

If the power goes out in the stadium where the Super Bowl's happening and a brand like Oreo can jump on it with a Tweet, planning these things weeks out without accounting for the need to be nimble is pretty lame.

I've worked with people who specialize in social media. All they do all day long is post to various social networks on behalf of companies. They're part of the marketing team. They know the voice. They know what's coming down the pipeline, and their job is to be plugged into what's new and popular EVERY DAY.

And that's what I mean by hiring someone you trust to act on your behalf. (And that goes for anything really, from administrative stuff to taxes to writing copy.)

Yeah, you can plan out campaign sequences in advance and load these things all up, timed to release at certain points. But you've also got to be ready to talk in real time.

That's where death by committee starts - the executives with the inability to remove themselves from a situation where they have no expertise, but still feel compelled to share their opinions.

I tend to trust the in-the-trenches people over those at the top.

Your first "guess", in reality an assumption, is largely historically correct.

Your second "guess" is based on what facts exactly? ROI? Statistical analysis? Personal opinion? Second-hand stories?

And your call to action is recycled garbage that hardly appeals to the target customer. Think a cheese snob needs to know HOW to serve cheese?

Social media is not a hard-sell vehicle.

Why? Because most people don't want someone following them to a bar (or other established "chill out and relax" zones and asking them to buy shit.

This is part of the reason why many social media companies are finding it hard to monetize - they have customer data they can sell, but they can't really make direct sales because a majority of the market isn't looking to buy there. When they are, companies don't know how to close the deal, as demonstrated by this entire thread.

But are there people making sales because of social media? You bet your ass. I'll give you an example, notwithstanding the Oreo example I gave earlier (which is a fantastic demonstration of top-of-mind positioning, even if it doesn't result in direct sales).

One local cupcake company (when I lived in the San Fernando Valley, California) built a massive Twitter and Facebook following with a campaign. Specifically, more than 10,000, which is pretty damn good for a local chain.

How? They devised a campaign to give a single free featured cupcake PER DAY to the first 25 people to physically come to the store with the secret password of the day.

Each person had to say the password too, even if you brought in a group. Guess what? The store often had such interesting flavors available, in addition to a GIGANTIC monthly calendar of daily flavor features, that people wound up buying 3-4, sometimes even more. WITH their free cupcakes.

Sometimes people only went in for the freebie and left. I'm definitely guilty of that.

But what did it cost that company? A couple dozen free cupcakes per day per location (I believe it had four). No press. No pay per clicks. No radio support. Just sheer word of mouth.

And I STILL stop by that place every time I'm in town and buy a box of at least 4. At $3+ a pop, you bet your ass I'm sampling some flavors.

Why does this work? Engagement. It's something a lot of companies really struggle with. Many don't even know who they're talking to, which makes it more difficult to sell.

That's where a lot of the value of social media does come from. Not the hard sales. Not the number. THE DATA. The first-hand knowledge of the benefits of your product or service, straight from the horse's mouth.