7 Social Media Behaviors That Won't Win You Customers

The old saying that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM seems to hold true. Most customers choose you and your brand on the basis of reputation. The alternatives may be dangerous to their wallet -- or career, when in B2B. Most investors, who could be one and the same with customers, think similarly.

This is confirmed in a study conducted by Credit Suisse, which identified 27 "great brands of tomorrow" that will significantly outperform the market over the next 3-5 years as they build and leverage brand equity to grow in size, scale and profitability.  [hat tip Rich Becker]

If you take a look at the partial list of brands, you will recognize some familiar names, and trust Google to deliver you information on the rest:

Alibaba.com, Almarai, Amazon, Apple, BIM, Capitec, China Merchants Bank, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Enfamil, Facebook, Hyundai Motor, Indian Hotels, Julius Baer, Li Ning, Mahindra & Mahindra, MercadoLibre, Mercedes-Benz, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sonova Holding, Swatch, Tiffany & Co., Tingyi, Trader Joe's, Tsingtao Brewery, Under Armour, Uniqlo, and Yakult Honsha

It's interesting to note that while some of these brands prefer Facebook, links above either to the company fan page or the main brand it promotes, a few have created Twitter accounts only recently -- Swatch, Tiffany & Co. Many of these brands you probably recognize.

Do you buy from them? Why?

Certainly not because you have a relationship with the people who make them. You buy based on word of mouth from your networks, product sexiness and appeal, you buy into their philosophy, etc. In other words, reputation, which is where perception -- yours and that of others -- lives.

I write this because I see train wrecks every day on Twitter or other social networks. Brands rushed to create accounts, then are totally unresponsive or insensitive to customer requests -- breaking the very thing that could be fixed there (when Air France never responded to their 800-number for customers, I tried their US Twitter account, no response at all), or that didn't need fixing: reputation.

Social media may not be optional moving forward, in the sense that your customers and buyers search online with increased frequency and want to find your brand where it's convenient for them to browse, share, buy. And as mobile technologies and networks get better (yeah, when will they?), you need to be where all of those things are happening.

However, what, why, when, and how you do it will make a big difference.

7 social media behaviors that won't win you customers

(1.) you have a blog, or a Twitter account, or a Facebook fan page and still don't understand that the Internet or the world wide web is the context, not your brand

(2.) you're pushing your message at specific users without a connection -- one thing is being syndicated by people who want to pull your feeds, the other is pushing to them, do you understand the difference?

(3.) you're not prepared to address potential issues in real time -- visibility and connections in a two-way medium come at a risk

(4.) you're all over the place, yet there isn't a coordinated effort behind it -- seeing what sticks is not a marketing strategy in 2010

(5.) you're not looking for your fans and evangelists -- or you want to make them conform to your idea of social

(6.) you focus on changing what people say by talking at them, locking them out, or positioning them as crazy when they aren't, instead of looking inwards and changing your business practices as appropriate

(7.) you want to interact with customers, when all customers want from you is a great transaction -- put shopping carts everywhere, and support those transactions

***

Whenever I write a post about what not to do, people ask me why would I not just write a set of guidelines?

Two main reasons:

• what to do and why depends on where you are in your brand's life cycle -- emerge, hit the wall, transform/proliferate, dominate and reinvent. You'll need to know the kind of investment needed in each phase. Are you retrenching to transform your brand? Did you hit the wall and need to rethink how you make money?

• when and how need to be integrated with the rest of what you're doing. Not what your competitor is doing, not what the rest of the world is doing -- what suits your brand and customer base, where they are, how they like to interact (or not) with you, etc. A good way to start is by asking.

In a recent interview at Davos, Tim Berners-Lee said that social networks, when grounded on a reputation-based system, have the potential to change the way we make decisions together, and how we decide what's the truth.

We watch each other when making decisions. Your reputation precedes you and changes upon your behavior. Know where your customers are and what they share. Show up, but know why you're there, and bring good content with you. That could be your product to begin with -- Apple, Tiffany & Co, Swatch, Mercedes-Benz, Under Armour perform just fine.

***

This is my take. What's yours? 

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Bret Simmons]

Awesome advice! If only the people that needed to hear this would read it. Sadly, the business owners get their information on SM through agencies, and most agencies don't tell them this stuff. Maybe that's because most agencies don't practice it themselves, so how could they understand?

Your point #3 is a good one. I once wanted to do business with someone I met on Twitter. I was impressed with what they were doing and wanted to hire them to do a presentation for me. I saw they were on Twitter and I sent them a DM and asked if we could talk. She told me she was busy for the next two weeks but could talk about three weeks from now - just contact her secretary. I don't think so!

[Karla Porter]

This is a fantastic valid look at big business and their social media behaviors. I recently took a look at how small business and micro-entrepreneurs who have taken the step to launch marketing campaigns via social media in a post on "How to Turn Me On Not Off" http://is.gd/9mQPL. Many have jumped into using the new tools with no understanding of how to positively influence consumer attitude and cause more harm than good in establishing their online brand.

As a side note, you blog rocks so much I use the RSS Feed for the Northeast PA Customer Service Consortium community ning site =)

[Debbie Ferm]

Hi Valeria,

I just found your blog, and I've been reading for the past hour when I should be working:)

I completely agree with #7 on your list. Sometimes I do just want a smooth transaction, and sometimes there are just one too many obstacles to getting what I want so I just say "Forget it".

People are very fickle that way, and I can't imagine the number of sales that are lost because of some silly overlooked detail.

Very interesting reading. I found you from reading a conversation you had with Darren Rowse recently.

Debbie Ferm

[Charley Hampton]

Building sustainable and differentiated relationships takes time, patience and focus. Too many people using social media offer throw away cliches as a way to attract potential clients. Lazy!
It's like throwing a hook and worm in a pond hoping some fish is stupid enough to bite. It's better to know what kind of fish might be present and give them exactly the kind of bait that appeals to them.

[Synthesio]

Great post, Valeria. :)

-Michelle

[Nicholas Tolson]

I hate how these sorts of posts always come off seeming so finger-waggy in tone. So much about the problem, and so little about solutions. Big (well, and small) companies are having a hard time getting a grip on social media. We get it. So do they. Now, help them, don't just admonish them.

And the, "it all depends" argument is a cop out. You can illustrate ways others avoided these pitfalls, or changed their behaviors, or the like with examples from other companies, tidbits, anecdotes, etc. You don't have to produce a social media strategy that fits everyone inside of a single blog post, but you should do more than produce yet another "X reasons why you suck at social media" type of post without actually getting them any closer to not sucking. Although, just like GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle, so I guess it's not all bad. :)

How about a, "7 Social Media Behaviors To Be Praised and Emulated" follow-up post?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Bret - experience helps, no doubt. One consideration about your DM to someone you just met. Perhaps worth for both to take the conversation offline and get to know each other a little? The causality of online media may lead to disconnects, which are not present in other channels, because we see them as more official. This is one of the issues companies are facing as well. When official channels are failing, people take to the more informal ones and there are no processes in place to address issues properly. Just thinking out loud with you here.

@Karla - it's all the pressure, much of it not justified, everyone is feeling to "network for free", or "find leads online at no cost". There's always a cost, your reputation is a cost. Thank you for the link, I will do a deep dive at your post.

@Debbie - hope the content is helpful to you :) Darren Rowse is a favorite of mine. Indeed, there are many brands I adore for that reason: they produce a great product, answer the phone when I need them, and leave me alone.

@Charley - it's the get rich quick mindset, alas. Value takes time. Processes take time. Being mindful takes special effort. Fish where the fish are, right?

@Michelle - thank you for stopping by.

@Nicholas - while I respect your opinion, "hate" is a very strong term, and not connective (a cop out?), I suggest it's handled with care. I have stats for posts like the one you suggest: they say nobody reads them. Why? Because they feel it doesn't apply to them. Psychology is an interesting thing. You've got to know what's wrong or that anything is wrong with something before you're ready to do it differently. Also, case studies are a wonderful thing -- if what you've got under the hood is the same as the other company. Culture, alas is unique. Hence this post. It starts with awareness that you're hurting your brand reputation and impacting your sales negatively. Maybe, that's when you start paying attention. BTW -- if you know what your business strategy is, social media is not an issue. You try things, listen, tweak, try some more.

[Rich Becker]

Great post Valeria,

There is so much that goes into what a brand might be. Your list is strong. It's certainly worth a follow up.

Almost all of these companies, as they move into social media, seem to be allowing the brand relationship with the customer to dictate how they represent themselves in this new environment.

Or, in other words, they recognize that the brand promise is more than meeting expectations, you have to deliver on the communication too. ...

Thank you for always delivering on your unstated, but recognizable, brand promise. When evangelism, sex, and self-promotion fill my reader, I can always count on you to provide great content that moves the conversation forward.

Best,
Rich

[D M]

Great info

[Bruno Ribeiro]

Another great post, as usual. I specially agree with you when you say "what to do and why depends on where you are in your brand's life cycle". Each brand has to understand how they can integrate social media in their overall business plan. While case studies are useful and we can learn a lot by studying what others do right, and wrong, there's no guarantee of success by copying what others do. There are many ways to make social media right, each brand has to find out the way it works for them and their costumers.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Rich - thank you for the encouragement. I realize people want a lot of hand holding. The communication aspect is crucial. However, a brand should not try to be what it isn't, and cut and paste advice will lead to that. We're thinking together :)

@D M - thank you for stopping by.

@Bruno - even established best practices for older marketing tactics will fail when applied blindly. This is all so now. It's the beauty of it! Get into it, experiment a little, learn, and get better at being yourself as a brand.

[Craig Evans]

Good points, I find that a lot of people that I do work for have all the social media platforms under the sun and they are targeting people who will never buy their products. Not only is this time consuming but utterly pointless advertising something to people who will never purchase!

[Danny Brown]

Interesting piece, Valeria, and it'll be fun to watch which brands do indeed become ones to stand out over the next few years.

With regards the social behaviours, you could say that many are just as true away from the social space - businesses need to buck up their ideas offline as well if they haven't already. Some multi-throwing works, but not in the long run.

[Kim McWatt]

Enjoyed the post. Social marketing needs planning just as any other marketing communications program. Those that take the time to really understand their business and how their customers connect to the brand and product will be able to determine the best course of action. Those that try hit and miss...will do just that.

[John Barremore]

From the list you gave, I do not, nor do I intend to buy from any of them. Many of the corporations listed are Chinese in origin.

One of the BIG problems with the American economy is a loss of jobs coupled with purchasing products from other countries and outsourcing work overseas.

Personally, I only buy from small American companies, or individuals, and especially those that make best use of raw materials and labor from the good ole USA.

Social media boom? Ha, sell that down the street; we ain't buying.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Craig - maybe it's the enthusiasm of the new tools, wanting to try them out.

@Danny - the ideas and services. This is a totally new ballgame. Companies will need to move away from institutionalized thinking to networked, thus integrated, communications and work.

@Kim - it's hard work, let's face it. Thank you for stopping by.

@John - should I point out that the list comes from the Credit Suisse report and was not hand-picked by me? Indeed, it's a good idea to support local businesses. Growing up in Europe, I never moved away from thinking about the local store first. I'm not selling you anything. In fact, I'm giving out thousands of hours of free advice and ideas from my experience here.

[Angela Connor]

The lack of coordination resonates with me big time. It is something I am recommending heavily. It's the cart before the horse syndrome. Many brands are on every single network they can find but there is absolutely no integration. Great read, again!