It took me 13 years of business marketing (and PR) experience to truly realize that promoting your business doesn’t have to be so complicated. Marketing gets a bad wrap for several reasons. Following the flock, copycatting, “persona-fying” yourself instead of your audiences and ignoring the data are all practices too commonly employed by companies (unfortunately) – and usually by small to medium size companies and small businesses. Then, of course, you get some “good ol’ boys (or ladies)” who like to play the “my stick is bigger than your stick” game. But one trend that needs to stop but seemingly never will is good old speculation. And we’ve seen that more than ever this week with the announcement of Facebook’s new Graph Search feature.
Facebook got serious about search, finally – and good for them. They’re doing what any self-respecting business (large or small) would do – trying to improve the product offerings, user experience – and yes – gain more users so they can monetize better.
And, in Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post introducing Graph Search, it’s pretty obvious he’s trying his best to compete with Google on every level. Now, everyone has a take on it, before it has really even taken shape. Some are saying Google should be worried, while others are saying this is going to single-handedly kill Facebook due to users not wanting their information searched and displayed.
Our take?
It looks pretty sweet. Cool enough to try. No, but seriously – we don’t know yet.
Seriously, how can anyone know? As digital marketing consultants, we know that you won’t know unless you strategically dip your foot into the water (with a purpose or goal in mind), then evaluate results, adjust and try again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
This is where it’s not hard. This is where you don’t need to over-think it’s potential impact or lack of impact before it’s even begun. Just learn about it (and we can help you), then define it’s purpose for your business, optimize your presence, track the results and adjust accordingly.
The same goes for anything else floating around in the social media marketing world.
There’s a purpose and a place for it all, and you won’t know what works best until you try.
