Guest post by Maeve Maguire
I have a client who owns a cooking school, and for whom I am helping write website content. Her customers are mostly women, between the ages of 35 to 70. They hear about her cooking classes from friends who are current or past students, and they usually attend in pairs or groups. Here is a conversation we had:
Me: I see your web designer has included a Twitter icon on your banner. Are you planning on using Twitter as a communication tool?
My client: Yes, I was planning on using Twitter. My web designer says he can write tweets for me. He uses software that enables him to pre-plan and book tweets so that he can write, say, two weeks’ worth of tweets in an evening.
Yikes.
Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with this arrangement? My client is willing to hand over her company communications to her web designer—whose expertise is in web design, not communication or cooking—and pay for the service. What bothered me most is she isn’t the first client to tell me this.
It got me thinking: The goal is to get more customers and earn money to achieve financial freedom which improves the quality of your physical, emotional, and spiritual life (or similar), yes? Can Twitter, and other social media, lead my clients to this goal?
Peter Shankman spells out the answer to my question in his (refreshingly) irascible article called, Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert. He writes, “We’re making the same mistakes we made in the DotCom era, where everyone thought that just adding the term .com to your corporate logo made you instantly credible. It didn’t.” In other words, including Twitter and Facebook in your communication strategy may be trendy, but it also may waste your time and money.
Shankman reminds us (in capital letters, to leave no doubt of his conviction) what good business is, “IT’S ABOUT GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH SOLID MARKETING AND STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE.” Then, in case anyone with a Twitter account or Facebook business page didn’t feel foolish enough already, he adds, “JUST LIKE IT’S BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.”
He goes on to remind us that transparency, relevance, and excellent writing are what make marketing great. And, when you’ve nailed down a brilliant brand message, you deliver it in a way your customer can receive it. He says, “If you’re tweeting all your discounts, and none of your customers are on Twitter, then you sir, are an idiot.”
Social media works…for some businesses. Ask your customers if they use social media to learn about your service. If they do, only then consult a communications professional for advice on how to apply it to your business.
Twitter isn’t rocket science (you can learn how to use it, and the “pre-planning” tools, in five minutes), but if you use it, know that it takes time to do it well. If you choose to outsource this job, hire an individual who understands your market and your brand, and who knows how to tweet—in that order.
Read Shankman’s full article at http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-will-never-ever-hire-a-social-media-expert-2011-5.
Maeve Maguire is a writer who specializes in online communications. She has been writing website content, technical documents, and marketing collateral for over 10 years for companies based in Canada and the UK. Learn more about Maeve’s writing services at www.describewriting.com, or read her blog about life in the Cowichan Valley at www.cowichandale.com.
Message from Clemens:
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