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> you have to jump into the world of blogging and Twitter and Facebook. The entire article hinges around this point. Your business -MUST- use Facebook/Twitter

by teej 18y ago

> you have to jump into the world of blogging and Twitter and Facebook. The entire article hinges around this point. Your business -MUST- use Facebook/Twitter/"Social Media". The article then goes on to point a dozen examples of companies that were successful with nothing related to social media. The day you see "Company X increased their sales by their Social Media presence" is the day Facebook & Twitter become profitable.

ryanwaggoner 18y ago
You clearly didn't read this post very carefully. Every example he cited was one where "Company X increased their sales through social media". Now, we can debate whether or not the increase was actually due to social media, which is a valid question, as social media ROI is still hard to measure. But it's pretty clear to me that the author's point was well-supported by thoughtful examples of companies who had strong reason to believe that was the case. I'll throw it another one that he didn't mention: Dell, who has said they've done millions in business through their Twitter efforts.
- teej 18y ago
  Rubbermaid increased sales through customer reviews on their website. Fog Creek establishes authority by having a well-received programming/business blog. Nike has an online custom shoe store. Zappos is big. Zappos is fanatical about customer service. Zappos uses Twitter as one small channel of their customer service initiative. Marketing.FM has a blog. If the article was about how blogs and customer service are good for business, it would have hit the mark. But I'm missing where Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Delicious fit in to those examples.
  - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
    He's including blogging as part of social media, which I think is accurate. Blogging seems to work best when it's used with Twitter as a conversation medium, rather than just a place to post stuff without listening to what people have to say. Zappos is big now, but they weren't always big, and I don't have any reason to not believe their CEO when he says that Twitter has been a big part of their success. The Nike example was weak, I agree. But the Rubbermaid thing is a good example of using social media...just because they hosted those reviews on their site doesn't mean that it's not social media. Here's another example that he missed: Yelp. In areas where Yelp membership is high, it has a big influence on local businesses. I agree that some of the sites you listed probably don't have a big impact on the bottom line, but to write off social media entirely because some of the social media sites are time-wasters with no ROI is a mistake.
  - alphazero 18y ago
    +1. Twitter is definitely a useful communication channel, and it stands out from the rest of the fads: email, sms, tweeter. That pretty much covers all the modalities.
  - smartbear 18y ago
    (I'm the author!) Yes I'm including "blogs" in social media. I'm also including things like having customer-driven reviews. It's sensible because "social media" general means things like going where the customers are and giving customers a strong (perhaps primary) voice in your own public persona. I accept your criticism that Facebook and the link-sharing sites don't fit the mold nearly as well, nor are they the primary drivers behind those success stories. (Although in the case of Facebook at least examples do exist.)

by teej 18y ago

ryanwaggoner 18y ago

You clearly didn't read this post very carefully. Every example he cited was one where "Company X increased their sales through social media". Now, we can debate whether or not the increase was actually due to social media, which is a valid question, as social media ROI is still hard to measure. But it's pretty clear to me that the author's point was well-supported by thoughtful examples of companies who had strong reason to believe that was the case. I'll throw it another one that he didn't mention: Dell, who has said they've done millions in business through their Twitter efforts.

teej 18y ago
Rubbermaid increased sales through customer reviews on their website. Fog Creek establishes authority by having a well-received programming/business blog. Nike has an online custom shoe store. Zappos is big. Zappos is fanatical about customer service. Zappos uses Twitter as one small channel of their customer service initiative. Marketing.FM has a blog. If the article was about how blogs and customer service are good for business, it would have hit the mark. But I'm missing where Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Delicious fit in to those examples.
- ryanwaggoner 18y ago
  He's including blogging as part of social media, which I think is accurate. Blogging seems to work best when it's used with Twitter as a conversation medium, rather than just a place to post stuff without listening to what people have to say. Zappos is big now, but they weren't always big, and I don't have any reason to not believe their CEO when he says that Twitter has been a big part of their success. The Nike example was weak, I agree. But the Rubbermaid thing is a good example of using social media...just because they hosted those reviews on their site doesn't mean that it's not social media. Here's another example that he missed: Yelp. In areas where Yelp membership is high, it has a big influence on local businesses. I agree that some of the sites you listed probably don't have a big impact on the bottom line, but to write off social media entirely because some of the social media sites are time-wasters with no ROI is a mistake.
- alphazero 18y ago
  +1. Twitter is definitely a useful communication channel, and it stands out from the rest of the fads: email, sms, tweeter. That pretty much covers all the modalities.
- smartbear 18y ago
  (I'm the author!) Yes I'm including "blogs" in social media. I'm also including things like having customer-driven reviews. It's sensible because "social media" general means things like going where the customers are and giving customers a strong (perhaps primary) voice in your own public persona. I accept your criticism that Facebook and the link-sharing sites don't fit the mold nearly as well, nor are they the primary drivers behind those success stories. (Although in the case of Facebook at least examples do exist.)