MackCollier.com

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The Key Difference Between Your Blog and Other Social Media Channels That Most Companies Miss

Your blog is where people meet youYour blog is where people meet you.

Your social media channels are where they seek you out.

It’s important to understand these differences because they necessitate adjusting your social media strategy accordingly.

Let’s use Twitter as our social example.  On Twitter, people are sharing your content and it’s where people are going if they have a customer service issue or a question for you.  They are more likely to want to connect with you on the sites they are already using, like Twitter, versus coming to your blog or site.  They are also more likely to know you because how would they know to connect with you at all?

On your blog, a good portion of your traffic is coming from search engines.  So many people are clicking on a link from Google, and then being sent to your blog, probably for the first time.  This is where people meet you.

So if you think about how people are interacting with you via social and your blog, you can see that you are dealing with slightly different audiences.  And you can even expand this to include newsletters, where people already know you, and want to develop a deeper connection with you.

Let’s think about how we are talking about slightly different audiences:

Social – People that are aware of you, that are following you or seeking you out.

Blog – Some people that also follow you on social, but also people coming from search who are likely being introduced to you (and your content) for the first time.

Newsletter – People that know who you are, and who enjoy your content so much that they will give you access to their inbox in order to get it as soon as its available.

Or put more simply:

Social – People that know of you.

Blog – Strangers.

Newsletter – Friends and fans.

Granted, that’s not a perfect representation and I can already hear some of you howling “But my friends all read my blog!”  True, but look at your blog’s traffic from search.  Almost all of that is coming from people that have never visited your blog before, and if your blog is older than 6 months, the odds are that at least half its traffic is coming from search.  For older blogs like this one, that percentage can go over 75%.

So each channel is a slightly different audience and requires slightly different approaches to your content.  Here’s how I tweak my content strategy for each channel:

Blog – This is where I create content based on the topics I want to be known for.  I assume that you are visiting here for the first time, so I am sharing what I know and more importantly, what I want to be known for.  It’s also used as my best channel for establishing thought leadership, since blog content will stay seeded in search engines.

Social – This is where I interact with people that know of me around topics that I am passionate about.  It helps us develop deeper connections plus to some extent it drives traffic back to my blog.

Newsletter – This is where I interact with people that know me and trust me enough with access to their inbox.  This is often people I know, and have met.  So my newsletter subscribers are far more likely to be friends that I love.  So I share my best content with my newsletter audience.  I give them first access to any new tools or tricks I come across, and try to be as helpful as possible to them.

Now it’s worth noting how your social media strategy would change if you didn’t use each of these channels.  For example, let’s say you only have a blog, and you are trying to use that blog to generate sales.  You can see how your job is going to be more difficult because your main audience at your blog will be strangers, and it’s typically more difficult to see to strangers than it is people that know you and value your work.

Blog – I don’t know you. (Content – Here’s who I am)

Social – I know of you. (Content – How can I help you?)

Newsletter – I know you and I like you.  (Content – This will help you, my friend)

Also, if you are trying to generate sales, those sales would likely come from Social and your Newsletter.  But at the same time, these are the audiences that know you and that you know.  So you don’t want to sell too much to your friends, right?  Instead, you give them your best and most helpful content, and make sure they are AWARE of how they can help you.  Friends don’t just sell to friends, right?

At least that’s how I do it.  How do you balance your content for different audiences?

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The Biggest Mistake That Brands Make When Working With Influencers

SocialGraphI just came across a quote in an eMarketer interview with an agency CEO that made me stop and shake my head:

“We don’t start to work with an influencer unless they have 50,000 combined followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.”

This thinking is soooo backwards and lazy.  Picking an influencer isn’t about the size of their network, it’s the connections they have to that network.  I once wrote a post, and shared it on Twitter.  I had two people RT my link:

1 – An ‘influencer’ with over 80,000 followers on Twitter.

2 – A friend with 15,000 followers on Twitter.

The ‘influencer’ sent a grand total of THREE visitors to my blog.  The friend with 80% fewer followers sent over 300 visitors to my blog.

Why?  Because even though the friend had a far smaller network, her network trusted her and the content she shared.  I’ve been actively tracking referral traffic from Twitter for years, and I find that the people that send me the most referral traffic tend to have between 5,000 and 20,000 followers on Twitter.  At that size they are following fewer people and can develop more relationships and connections with their followers. Influencers with between 20,000 and 100,000 followers typically send LESS traffic to my blog.

So does that mean that number of followers is meaningless when evaluating which influencers to work with?  No, but it’s far less important than the levels of engagement that the influencer has with their audience.  And you have to dig deeper than just looking at RTs or Likes.  Look at how many comments they get.  Also look at how often they reply to followers and engage them.  You want to work with influencers that have a larger following, but who also are engaged with their following.  If I had to chose I’ll take working with the influencer with 15,000 followers that gets a ton of engagement with her network over the other influencer with 75,000 followers that never engages with or gets replies from his network.

Numbers aren’t everything.  Remember the whole point of this social media stuff is to be social.

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Long-Form Content or Short Posts; Which Is More Important?

3347658610_bd6daf9b57_zFor years, there’s been a raging debate among both personal and business bloggers over what’s the ideal length for posts.  In general, most bloggers settle in on a post length of a few hundred words, but there are definitely exceptions to the rule.

There’s actually a lot of research that shows that the longer your blog post is, the more social shares, on average, it will get.  In fact, some studies suggest that blog posts can be up to 10,000 words (you read that right) in order to maximize social shares.  The logic is actually sound, as any post with over 2,000 words is likely going to be a deep-dive into a particular topic, and those posts tend to create more value, and as a result, they attract more of those coveted social shares.  I’ve seen this with my own content, as my most shared posts tend to be between 1,500 and 2,000 words.

Here’s the problem: The amount of time it takes to create a post with 1,500 or more words is much more than it does for a shorter post of 500 words or less.  In fact, for the two posts I just linked to (Both of which have between 500 and 1,000 social shares), it took approximately 20 hours total to write both posts.  Think about that for a minute: If you knew that it would take you 10 hours to write a post, how many posts could you write in a month?  1?  2?  None?

So if you commit to writing only long-form content, or posts over 1,500 words, you are also committing to creating far fewer posts.  This creates another problem: It’s harder to build readership if you publish only a few times a month.  Which means your 1 or 2 longer posts you publish a month are going to be seen by fewer people, which means they will gather fewer social shares.

Given all this, it seems there IS a role for shorter content, despite what the ‘experts’ will claim.  The bottom line is that while creating good content is important, creating MORE content is as well.  There needs to be a compromise between quality of content, and quantity.  Both are pivotal for building a readership.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with a hybrid approach.  I’ve been writing shorter posts, sometimes as short as 200 words, sprinkling in 1 or so longer posts of 1,000 words or more a week.  This strategy has allowed me to significantly increase the number of posts I write here, and has resulted in a sharp increase in Social as well as Referral traffic.  This makes sense, because increasingly, traffic from Social is coming from social shares, and those visitors are likely to either know you already, or engage you on Twitter or Facebook AFTER sharing your post.  And as I talked about in the last post, it creates a nice way for your blog content to help you get noticed by others, then you can expand on that relationship via your newsletter, or during those social interactions that come after the sharing.

So if you’ve been on the fence about how long your posts should be, consider letting yourself off the hook and writing shorter posts.  Shorter posts still can be quite valuable for your readers, and creating more content also helps you build readership.  And more readers means when you do write that longer post, it will be seen (and shared!) by more people.

Pic via Flickr user 10Ch

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The Changing Ways That Retailers Are Leveraging Influencers to Drive Sales

ShoppingI recently saw an interesting article that eMarketer had on how retailers are shifting their strategy for using influencers.  Most companies, regardless of industry, typically use influencers to help raise awareness of their brand or new product, etc.  This is a smart move to ‘get the word out’ about who you are, but over time it makes more sense to empower your existing and developing advocates to help tote that banner for you.

There are two shifts in thinking as it concerns retailers working with influencers that I think are worth mentioning:

1 – Retailers are increasingly repurposing unpaid content that influencers create.  This is just smart marketing, if an influencer gives your brand a positive (and unsolicited) mention, then point that out to others.

2 – Retailers are focusing less on reach and more on relevancy when it comes to working with influencers.  This is very smart, you’re giving up overall reach to instead get more reach with a more defined audience.  It’s the difference between connecting with an influencer with huge reach in the clothing industry, versus working with an influencer that doesn’t have as much reach in clothing, but who does have a nice footprint in clothing for teenage girls.

As with any efforts using influencers, I always advise clients that reach isn’t everything.  In fact, reach is never the first thing I look at, I always start with how engaged and connected they are with their network.  Would you rather work with an influencer with 100,000 followers on Twitter that never gets any engagement, or with an influencer with 25,000 followers that gets 50 replies a day?  I want to work with the influencer that has an engaged network that’s going to listen to what they say.

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The Passion Principle: The Secret to Creating Content and Marketing That Your Customers Will Love

PatagoniaSelling

Patagonia doesn’t market itself like your company does.  Patagonia spends almost no money on traditional advertising, and when it does, it typically does so in a way that makes its competitors shake their heads.  For example, a few years ago Patagonia ran an ad telling its customers not to buy its products.  Last year it sent a truck on a cross-country tour where seamstresses would not only repair your Patagonia clothing for free, they would repair any clothing, even if it was from a competitor.

Patagonia does everything it can to stop you from buying its products.  And its efforts have been a colossal failure.  The privately-held company is not only growing, it’s growing faster than its founder wants it to.

“I am faced with this ‘growth’ thing.  We could be a billion-dollar company in a few years, and it’s not something I ever wanted or even want.” – Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard

 

“I’m Fast, and There Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do About It”

Consider this broadcast commercial from Nike that debuted last month:

This commercial breaks two long-accepted beliefs of what makes successful advertising:

1 – The belief that people don’t like commercials. There’s been an entire cottage industry pop up around helping consumers skip or avoid commercials. Yet this commercial from Nike had over three million views on YouTube within the first week.

2 – The belief that you have to sell something. This commercial never advertises a product or service, and there’s no call-to-action at any time to buy either. Strip out a few quick and almost subliminal appearances by the Nike Swoosh logo, and you would have no idea what company was responsible for this ad.

 

But something is being sold here.  Maybe it’s the dream that every child has when they play mini-midget or pee-wee football that one day they will be the next Peyton Manning or Julio Jones.  Maybe it’s the dream that a mother or father has for their child to see them one day become an NFL success.

Nike understands that every child has those dreams, and what it is selling is how its products can help make that dream a reality.

Nike’s marketing focus for this commercial isn’t its products, it’s what its customers are passionate about. That instantly makes its message more interesting and appealing to its audience.

 

“The Challenge of My Life Is…To Find Out How Far I Can Take It”

RedBull

And then there’s Red Bull.  Long heralded as the poster-child for successful content marketing, Red Bull does little to promote its actual product.  Instead, it promotes the activities its customers are passionate about.  Even to the point of sponsoring ‘extreme sporting’ events and teams, helping to push forward an entire industry.  Red Bull’s customers can see that the brand is just as devoted to the sports and events as they are, and this makes it easier for these customers to become more devoted to Red Bull as a result. Red Bull understands that it’s not about selling its energy drink, it’s about selling what happens after you drink it.

 

Most of us view marketing in the same context. As being boring, repetitive, and a nuisance to be avoided.  Yet in the hands of brands like Patagonia, Nike and Red Bull, marketing becomes something else entirely.  Interesting, engaging, and even inspirational.  Great marketing doesn’t sell a product or service, it inspires us to change ourselves, to even change the world.

Why the Disconnect?  What Are These Brands Doing Differently?  

One of the main reasons why I wanted to write Think Like a Rock Star was because I was enamored with how easily rock stars can create and cultivate fans.  And when I say ‘fans’, I am talking customers that literally are in love with their favorite rock star.  I wanted to write that book to determine if brands could create fans using the same methodology as rock stars.  I was thrilled and delighted to discover the exact process that rock stars use to create fans, and how brands can do the same.  It’s all in the book.

On the same note, for the last few months I’ve been fascinated with how brands like Patagonia, Red Bull, Nike and Pedigree simply create better marketing than most other brands.  I wanted to deconstruct what these brands are doing differently to determine if there’s a pattern and a process that your brand can use to improve its own marketing efforts.

Recall the AIDA model of measuring advertising effectiveness that we all learned in college.  The ‘A’ stands for Awareness.  It’s the starting point, a potential customer has to be aware before they can have Interest and the Desire to Act, ie purchase your product.

This is where most brands deviate from those that create truly effective marketing like Nike, Red Bull, Patagonia and Pedigree.  Most brands begin at the starting point of making sure that they make potential customers aware of its product.  They sell potential customers on what the product does, and use that as the basis for making the case for why you should buy it.

Brands like Red Bull, Nike, Patagonia and Pedigree do something radically different.  They don’t start by trying to make you aware of their products, instead they try to make you aware of how their products will fit into your life and make it better.  The focus isn’t their products, it’s your passions.

Patagonia isn’t selling clothing, it’s selling what you will do while wearing its clothing.

Red Bull isn’t selling an energy drink, it’s selling what happens after you drink it.

Nike isn’t selling shoes, it’s selling how you will be better at the sports you play while wearing its shoes.

Pedigree isn’t selling dog food, it’s selling happier and healthier dogs.

Pedigree

You don’t market your product, you market how your product fits into your customers’ lives.  Too many companies market their product and assume that the customer can make the connection for themselves as to how that product would be relevant to the customer.  Quite frankly, this is incredibly lazy and ineffective marketing.  The smart companies are the ones that understand their customers enough to understand their passions, what stirs their souls.  And they take this knowledge and create marketing messages that tap into these passions, and that make the connection for the customer between their passions, and the company’s product.

If you focus on the things that your customers are passionate about, by extension your customers will become more passionate about your brand.  The key is to market things that your customers are passionate about, that also relate to your product.  Nike promotes being active in sports because it sells the equipment you’ll need to perform those activities.  Pedigree promotes happier and healthier dogs because it sells the dog food that’s going to help your dog live a happier and healthier life.  But customers are more passionate about being active than they are about a running shoe.  They are more passionate about creating a better life for their golden retriever than they are about your dog food.  Nike and Pedigree understand this, so they focus on their customers’ passions first, and the connection between those passions and the product, second.

In fact, most brands prioritize its marketing communications in this order:

1 – Sell the product, what it does and why it works.

2 – Sell how the product fits into the customer’s life.

3 – Sell ideas, beliefs and causes that customers are passionate about, that also relate to the product.

Most brands focus almost all of their marketing efforts on #1, with a bit of #2, and almost none of #3.

But the brands that truly create memorable marketing communications flip the order:

1 – Sell ideas, beliefs and causes that customers are passionate about, that also relate to the product.

2 – Sell how the product fits into the customer’s life

3 – Sell the product, what it does and why it works.

There’s two important point to realize about both these approaches.  If you focus mostly on the product itself, many people will immediately tune your marketing messages out because you haven’t yet made the case to them for what your product is relevant to them.  Also, your message will immediately be classified as being a ‘marketing’ message, and most of us immediately ignore any message that we view as being ‘marketing’.

Second, if you focus instead on the ideas, beliefs and causes that your customers are passionate about, that instantly makes your ‘marketing’ message relevant to your customers.  You immediately perk their ears up and they will listen to what you have to say.  Also, you are creating that Desire to learn more about your product so your customers will be motivated to do their own research on your product.  And let’s be honest, we all want to support and advocate for companies we believe in.  If your brand shows me that it can connect with me around the ideas, causes and beliefs that I hold dear, I will feel better about doing business with your brand.

 

So what’s the formula?  What’s The Passion Principle for your brand?

First, you have to know your customers well enough to know who they are, and what’s important to them.  What you want to do is find the connections between your product, and your customer’s passions.  This isn’t always obvious, and typically requires research on the part of your brand.  For example, Fiskars didn’t realize how popular its orange-handle scissors were with its customers in the scrapbooking community until they started talking to those customers.  This knowledge caused the brand to shift its marketing focus away from the scissors (product), and instead focus on scrapbooking (customer’s passion).  By shifting its marketing to focus on the passion of its customers (scrapbooking), the brand became more interesting and relevant to its customers.  BTW, Fiskars just reported that net sales increased by 62% in Q3 for 2015.

So in order to create marketing and content that your customers will love, start by asking (and answering) these questions:

1 – What are our customers passionate about?

2 – What are they trying to accomplish?

3 – What problems do they need to solve?

4 – What roadblocks are in their way?

5 – How does our product relate to any or all of the previous points?

The fifth point is probably the most important because it’s not enough to simply understand what your customers are passionate about or what their problems are, you also need to understand how your product is the solution to that problem.  Otherwise, you’ll be focused on ideas, passions and beliefs that might be relevant to your customers, but that aren’t relevant to your product.  Which means your content and marketing won’t be as memorable or relevant to your customers.

Case in point: Name your 5 favorite Super Bowl commercials from last year.  It’s tough, isn’t it?  I bet you’re struggling to remember even one, aren’t you?  Yet every year we’ll see Super Bowl ads that make us laugh or tug at our heartstrings, but unless the message is relevant to the brand, it’s difficult to remember.

Now here’s another test: What brand did the ‘So God made a farmer…’ Super Bowl commercial from a couple of years ago?  I bet its easier for you to remember that Dodge was behind this commercial, right?  Why?  Because a Dodge truck fits into the life of a farmer.  It makes sense because farmers need trucks to get their work done, so there’s a connection there that works.

If the connection makes sense, then the content or marketing message will resonate and be more effective.  Remember, you don’t market your product, you market how your product fits into your customers’ lives.

Pic via Flickr user Sheila_Sund

Pic via Flickr user Kevin Cole

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Customers Are Increasingly Using Mobile Devices to Research Your Company and Your Products

According to new research from eMarketer, the majority of mobile shoppers are under the age of 44 (78%) and Female (53.4%).  The article also referenced a study done by Payvision that found that 57% of retailers worldwide experienced major mcommerce growth in 2014, and that figure increased to 79% for 2015.

So needless to say, customers will increasingly be viewing your content on mobile devices.  As a result, you should make every effort to make sure that your content is optimized for mobile devices.  Here’s a couple of links that can help you with that.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Checker.  This will scan your site/blog and tell you if it is mobile-friendly.  It will also tell you things you can work on to improve performance.

WPtouch Mobile Plugin.  This is the plugin I use to make this site all purdy when loaded on smartphones.  It’s only for WordPress, and it does have some compatibility issues with certain WordPress themes, so it may not work on your WordPress blog.  But it’s worth trying out, here’s some screenshots from how my content looks on an iPhone with this plugin:

MobileSiteHave you optimized your blog for mobile devices? If so, have you noticed any changes, especially to search traffic from mobile devices?

 

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Travel Agencies, CVBs Should Highlight Bloggers That Are Promoting Your Local Area

This is a great example of a local CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) promoting a blogger that took the time to promote that area’s attractions.  In essence, the blogger is promoting you, so you promote the blogger!  This only encourages local bloggers to do more to help spread the word about your local area and can help them become powerful promotional partners with you.

This can and should be done by all tourism departments, especially local CVBs that focus on promoting a local area.  You should actively research for any sites or bloggers that routinely promote local attractions and begin promoting any content they create that promotes your local attractions.  Another example would be property managers.  Years ago I worked with a client that had a national network of properties that they rented apartments at.  Part of the advice I gave them was to promote their local areas and show why people should want to move their and rent an apartment in that area.  And this included connecting with local bloggers that were promoting the area because these bloggers were doing the client’s job for them!

So part of your digital strategy if you are trying to promote your local area should be to connect with any bloggers that are helping you in your quest to attract people to that area.  Put the spotlight on these bloggers and thank them for helping you draw attention to your area.

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Your Brand’s Guide to Dealing With That Customer That Just Called You An Asshole on Facebook

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

Let’s say you get this comment on your Facebook page about your all-purpose cleaner: “This product sucks.  It works on vinyl ok but did nothing to the stains in my carpet, I sprayed it on and then vacuumed up and it didn’t faze the stain,  Total waste of money.”

Your product clearly states in the instructions that you are to let it soak for at least 30 minutes on carpet stains, but it appears the angry customer did not do this.  So you politely try to help him.

“Hi Don! Sorry you had some difficulty removing the stain on your carpet.  As it states in the instructions, if you are trying to remove a stain from your carpet, please let the cleaner soak into the carpet for a minimum of 30 minutes before vacuuming up.  If you try this I think you will see improved results, please let us know!”

Undeterred, Don replies again: “I’m not an idiot, I know how to read the instructions! I left the product on for a few minutes, that should be plenty of time if it’s any good!”

Actually, it appears that Don may indeed be an idiot, since he cannot follow simple instructions.  Even if he’s not, he’s definitely acting like an ass in this interaction and is abusing a company that’s clearly trying to help him with his issue.

But as a company, you still have to deal with the fact that every online conversation has 3 sides; Yours, mine, and everyone else that’s watching our interaction.  Calling Don an abusive idiot might make you feel better, and the people that have been following your interactions with Don might even agree with you, but to everyone else that reads your post later, they will view you as the clueless company that just called a customer an abusive idiot.

So the question at this point becomes “How do we respond to Don?”  Since Don didn’t listen to your suggestion on how to properly clean his carpet, it’s valid to assume that if you try to help him again that he not only won’t listen (again) but he might attack you (again).

Then it makes sense to either ignore Don, or if you feel like leaving another attempt at helping him. I would suggest doing so in a way that is helpful, but that playfully points out that he’s acting like an ass.  Something like…

“Hi again Don! Sorry to hear that you continue to have difficulty removing the stain on your carpet, but at least you are successfully ignoring our clear instructions for solving your problem! Just to humor us, could you try liberally applying the cleaner to the stained area of your carpet, and then vacuum it no sooner than 30 minutes later? This should either completely remove your stain or at least make us feel better about your efforts to do so.  Keep in mind that if you need more help we are here for you, or you can call or visit our website!  Good luck!”

It’s entirely possible that Don might blow up again, or that another customer would.  Unfortunately, there will always be people that lack basic social skills, that feel determined to use social media anyway.  The point is that just as your brand shouldn’t be abusive to its customers via social media (duh), your brand also doesn’t have to accept when its customers are being abusive to you via social media.  Give your customers credit: They can see if your brand is acting inappropriately, and they can also tell if other customers are as well.

Typically, discretion is the better part of valor and it’s best to walk away from a customer that’s being abusive.  On the other hand, if you can tactfully ‘put him in his place’, slapping down an abusive customer can win you accolades from other customers, and send a message to other potentially abusive customers that you intend to call them out on their bad behavior.

Engage With Your Fans, They Are Your ‘Guard Dogs’

While trolls and assholes might avoid your Facebook page if you call them out on their behavior, they will run for the hills if your fans will as well.  I’ve talked about this before, but think of your fans as being a guard dog in your yard.  The dog will alert you if a stranger is sniffing around, and he’ll scare them off.  Your fans do the same thing.  Engage with your fans and they will stick around and help defend you online and let you know if someone is causing you grief.  They’ll also help out customers that legitimately need help, and they will bring these people to your attention as well.

The bottom line is be helpful, friendly, respectful and compassionate, and you’ll be fine, even if the jerks come knocking (and they always do).

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Companies Encouraging Employees to Use Social Media is Increasingly Popular Heading Into 2016

16034335445_0ba754b746_zA new article from eMarketer sheds light on how popular Social Employee Advocacy Programs are becoming.  These are programs where employees are encouraged to promote their brand via social media.  You can immediately see why it would be popular with many companies.

In crafting such programs, it is important for the company to also create guidelines for any employees that decide to participate.  These include such things as letting the employee know what type of behavior/conduct is expected, identifying themselves as representatives/employees of the brand when they create content that promotes it, etc.

Also, such programs should be offered as an option, not as being mandatory.  Just as you wouldn’t require every employee in your country to deal with customers directly in a retail setting, you shouldn’t ask all of them to do so online.  The last thing you want to do is make employees feel obligated to engage in a task that they don’t want.  Instead, you want to attract the employees that love your brand and who are already singing your praises online.  Their voice is authentic and their ability to attract others to your brand is far greater than the employees that feel ‘forced’ to participate in a program that they feel isn’t worth their time.

Pic via Flickr user MSLGroupGlobal

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Stop Listening to Social Media Experts (Or At Least Be More Careful When You Do)

16224910474_93e761cc3a_zA few years ago I took my Acura to a Honda dealer to have them change the oil and rotate the tires.  About an hour later, the service manager comes out with a clipboard and I ask him “How’s everything look?”

“Ho boy!”, he exclaims.  “You’re going to end up on the side of the road soon if we don’t repair all this as soon as possible!”

Now I’m not a mechanic, but I do know a (very) little about working on cars.  With a skeptical eye, I took a look at his laundry list of items that all needed to be fixed immediately, or according to him I was “going to end up on the side of the road soon”.

I looked at his list, and immediately notice several items that either didn’t need to be fixed or were actually due to be replaced according to the mileage of the car and a ‘suggested maintenance schedule’.  “Ok”, I explained, “I just replaced the distributor cap and the wires, and the plugs were changed 3,000 miles ago so they are fine as well.  So out of what’s left, what needs to be fixed today?”

With a bit of a frown he looked at the list and sighed “Well…I guess the only thing that you need to worry about right now is the rear motor mount, it’s in pretty bad shape.  But everything else can wait at least another 6 months.”

So in 2 mins I had gone from a dozen or so items that all needed to be fixed that day if I wanted to make it home, to there actually only being one item that needed immediate repair.

I was recalling this conversation when I recently sat down with Kerry Gorgone to record Marketing Profs’ year-end episode.  One of the recurring themes that Kerry’s guests mentioned was that they wanted to see less criticism of brands, especially when it comes to digital marketing.  And for brands, don’t take that criticism to heart, and consider the source.

When I say ‘consider the source’, keep in mind that a lot of the criticism that’s being leveled at brands using social is coming from consultants and agencies that have a vested interest in selling these brands social media consulting services.  It can sometimes be a case of “You suck! But that’s ok, because for a low monthly retainer, I can teach you how NOT to suck!”

Not all consultants and agencies that provide digital marketing advisement to companies are like this, in fact most reputable ones are not.  But it’s truth that many of the people that are criticizing your brand have a vested interest in doing so.  Either they are hoping to sell you consulting services, or maybe they are piling on with the latest brand mishap in a race to get out a new post every day.

Use Social Media Experts and Thought Leaders For Advice, Not Instruction

One of the key pieces of advice you will hear as a blogging company is that you need to blog regularly.  That a regular stream of good content that benefits your audience is imperative.

Recently, I was talking to a fellow consultant.  He was telling me about how well his year was going, and I lamented the fact that I needed to find time to start blogging regularly again.  He said “Mack I haven’t written a blog post in 6 months. I just don’t have time.”  Here’s a consultant that’s having an excellent year, yet he is so busy with work that he goes months sometimes without blogging.  But obviously it’s not hurting his business!

The point is that just because everyone says you should do something, doesn’t mean you should.  The best way to leverage the advice of experts is to listen to multiple ones, and look for trends.  And then approach their advice as being a suggestion for you, not an order.  Your business is unique, I can tell you what will work for a business like yours in general, but until I sit down with you and we discuss the unique goals and challenges associated with your business, I cannot give you customized advice on how to improve your efforts.

Listen to the experts, but don’t discount your own intuition and knowledge.

Pic via Flickr user GotCredit