Originally Posted by
Peter Carruthers
I’ve had a whole bunch of people talk to me about marketing on Facebook and “getting our name out there”.
My advice for the past few years has been a little contrarian, because I cannot see how Facebook offers the same value for the same amount of money as, for instance, Google.
And so I started looking for Facebook success stories, genuine stories about small-business owners who prospered through their Facebook efforts. I struggled.
In my mind the point of business is simple: to create clients. A client is somebody who gives you money, in return for a service or product that you provide.
This means that when you measure your success in any marketing effort, as a small-business owner at least, you look at how much money you put in, and you look at how much money you took out, and you should end with some profit - even after paying yourself that monthly pittance.
If you don’t have any profit, either you are doing it wrong, or there’s something wrong with the system. In advertising circles, when there’s something wrong with the system we tell you that at least “you got your name out there”. And, apparently, if you do this often enough, somebody might buy from you.
That’s rubbish. At least, for a small-business owner. It may have worked when you had just one competitor for the village trade, but right now you and I are competing against dozens/hundreds of firms across the globe, all trying to sell to your neighbour.
With Facebook, it’s a little different. Most Facebook agencies that speak to my clients will guarantee that they get a vast improvement in the number of “Likes”. I still haven’t worked out why these are useful. But, I know that you can’t bank them. You can’t use “likes”, for instance, to buy a meal at Nandos, not even a quarter chicken with spicy rice.
A “Like” does not really seem a great deal of use. It strokes your ego, of course, but that’s about it. Even a "Poke" offers more promise.
As I searched for success stories a trend began to emerge. Facebook primarily targets individual consumers. If you are selling to other businesses, you can expect to struggle.
Businesses list themselves on Facebook only to trawl for consumers. People list themselves on Facebook to talk to each other. Then they make a lot of noise doing just that. Billions of them. All this while businesses try to interrrupt those conversations.
And that’s why I expected so many more success stories. With billions gathering in this one chatty place I expected floods of them. No chance. (Or maybe it is a Google conspiracy to kepp us from reading them?)
You can no longer trust what anybody’s telling you online because, apart from them talking about their children and showing you pictures, especially the cute ones where the child has lost three teeth recently, you have no idea whether it is in fact Peter Carruthers talking, or Peter Carruthers’ Filipino ghostwriter just "creating content".
In other words, there is uncertain integrity in the discussion.
A brand cannot speak. So when a brand tells you something, as Kellogg’s All Bran flakes might, it’s not the flakes speaking. It is the marketing fellow du jour. That is why companies get to remake their personalities every few years. New brooms sweep clean.
So, if you have had genuine success (as measured in money) on Facebook, won’t you please share your story with me. I would love to be wrong on this.
Warm regards
Peter Carruthers
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