A blog post

Why Social Media Ads Don’t Work for Every Business

Posted on the 04 May, 2009 at 11:40 am Written by in Social Media

Recently I spoke at an eventabout the benefits of using social media. After sharing my tips with the people in the audience, one person raised his hand and asked the following:

“I want to use ads. How can I do that?”

I was completely shocked by the question. The reason is because over the previous 90-minutes, I shared with the audience how to use social media to build rapport, build relationships and then convert those leads into clients. Yet, there was this person in the audience, one of the attendees, who was so focused on ads, he missed the whole point of my presentation.

Social media is all about building rapport. You cannot set it and forget it. You need to cultivate relationships with social media by being present.

Now, being present doesn’t necessarily mean logging in every hour of the hour. Instead being present simply means that you engage with people on a personal level using social media.

The problem with ads is that you launch them in a social media tool, then you have no idea if the right person is seeing that ad. Not just that, but you’re not engaging people on a personal level. Therefore, your social media ad becomes ineffective simply because people will just ignore it.

So, if you’re thinking about using social media, you must look at it as a business development tool. It isn’t the place for you to launch an advertising campaign. Now, you can, however, your time and money is best spent when you’re engaging with people on a personal level.

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  • http://www.CrackerjackOnlineMarketing.com Helen Graves

    So true, Leesa. And that kind of “myopic” marketing can happen to all of us. I’m always reminding (some might say nagging) my clients about how important creating connection with your audience is to making sales with your online launch campaigns. Most people prefer to buy AFTER a relationship has been formed.

    Thanks for the reminder to get personal.

    Helen Graves
    Grand Poohbah of Crackerjack Online Marketing

  • http://www.indiebusinessblog.com Donna Maria Coles Johnson

    This is a great post, Leesa. May I add that it is possible to combine advertising and correct social media outreach if the community where your branded advertisement is displayed is one that you actively participate in, and one that is a living, breathing eco-system for your niche customers. This allows you to naturally leverage the social relationships with the branding ones, creating a 24/7 platform. The ad supports the relationships and the relationships support the ad. I work with companies that do that very effectively. Of course this only works if the social community has effective leadership and moderation.

    Thanks for a good discussion!

    dM @ IndieBusiness

  • indiebusiness

    This is a great post, Leesa. May I add that it is possible to combine advertising and correct social media outreach if the community where your branded advertisement is displayed is one that you actively participate in, and one that is a living, breathing eco-system for your niche customers. This allows you to naturally leverage the social relationships with the branding ones, creating a 24/7 platform. The ad supports the relationships and the relationships support the ad. I work with companies that do that very effectively. Of course this only works if the social community has effective leadership and moderation. Thanks for a good discussion!