Social Media Gyan : Why Social Apps fails most of the time

In today’s marketing scenario every Tom, Dick n Harry wants their brand to be on social network, yes from Diapers to Detergents. I see nothing wrong in it.. But hey! Its India and BIG agencies who take up these jobs to put those brands on Social Network know nothing other then distributing colorful pamphlets. To the worst they follow the same practice on SNS too. SAD!

So, what they do ? the big guyz

a) They pitch hard by creating those dumb ppts showing millions of users on Orkut – FB – Twitter.. as if they were the reason behind such high numbers.
b) Commit Client a brand new Social App ( Social App they say )
c) Commit some big time brand awareness
d) Then they go Ahead and Create those old fashioned microsite with all those jazzy flash + images + About the Brand Page + Comments Page.. blah Blah… and they wrap it with some big SNS like Facebook and Orkut ..
e) And they spam all their network – asking their friends to add up those apps.
f) Spend big time money on banner campaign – resulting a good Unique visits.
g) And they wait.. they wait.. they wait .. they crib about the failure .. n they forget about the so called social app they created.
h) Chapter ends here.

The result of such pattern is – Client thinks the Social media is not the right way to promote their product – Agency says – they where not briefed properly ( in most cases its true ) about the product and the product is not SOCIAL Media Friendly.

So, who messed up? Answer is very clear – the Agency who took the job to promote the Brand on Social Media.

How they :
a) Its Social Media guyz!!!! It’s a kind of world in itself – it clearly says its Social – and we forget to include basic social features like friends list showing who all visited /viewed / played / added the content which the user currently is on at.
b) One way Communication - start talking to your users on forums – Blogs – etc
c) Spam your list : More then 2 mails a day – twitter feeds – direct invites – and some needy sounding mails with some free bees. BIGGEST mistake. The outcome is simple – if they added your app, they will remove it – if they are following on Twitter, they will stop it.

The DOs and DON’Ts will go on – if I continue writing.. but for now I think you should read a nice article ( old tho’ ) from one of my friend and a Social Media Catalyst

Article TOC :
7 Cs of Social Media Marketing
1. Context
2. Communicate
3. Conversation
4. Content
5. Create
6. Collaborate
7. Contacts


URL : http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/04/7-cs-of-social-media-marketing.html

Before I conclude, I wish to share this thought of mine – Don’t treat Social Apps or Social Media Campaign as old fashioned Microsite development where information was flown one way and promotion happened using banners. Its Social Media, Banners can give you those initial kick start but if you fail to create a connection between the brand and the user – failure is way out.

The way its going now – everybody is pumping money and we are seeing a big spike but get ready to see social media bust.