The Emperor’s New Clothes
Posted on 21. Jul, 2011 by marcrubinassociates in branding, corporate identity, marketing
I admit it; I’m a skeptic. If it’s going to work, I want this social media marketing experiment to make a difference for us right away. Even though I know that any kind of marketing takes time to generate business, I somehow have this expectation that the immediacy of social media will generate an instantaneous business response.
Recent website analytics show that this blog and our LinkedIn page are increasing visits to our website, and that people are staying at the site longer. That’s good, but it hasn’t yet generated any new business. Next week we’ll add a monthly email update to the mix, and it will be interesting to see how that performs.
I may be quiet and introspective, but I’m not the most patient person in the world. I want this experiment to work quickly, for MRA and our clients. We’re trying out social media and understand that our ability to provide these services will be judged by how well we do for ourselves. And that’s scary. What if this doesn’t work for us? What if social media marketing only works for businesses that make widgets? Or something more consumer-based, like clothes?
Speaking of clothes, the skeptic in me likens this experiment to Hans Christian Andersen’s tale about the emperor and his new clothes. Is social media marketing a con sold to us by new media “tailors”, or is it something more? We’re trying to find out if the emperor has no clothes, and as we go along, we’re going to let everyone know what we learn. Stay tuned!
