SocialMediaBust

It just keeps coming and coming and coming. Here's how it works. Write an article advising people to use [twitter, or facebook, or linkedin]. Stick a title on it that has nothing to do with the content, but has a nice twist to it. Then right the same old inaccurate junk in such a way that the article has no internal logic or consistency. Blast it out into the social media world, and some fools are going to re-send it. If enough people resend it, it might even become "true" or at least take on the characteristics of urban myth.

Here's another one from a blog called Digital Marketing Mercenary and attributed to Steve Farnsworth. Steve is, apparently a speaker, expert, and well, you know the self-proclaimed drill.

The post is entitled:My Customers Don’t Use Twitter.” Oh, but they do! (I hesitate to give this stuff free traffic, but what the heck).

The first thing is that after you read the article, you'll wonder what the title has to do with the article. The second is that if you understand how to look at numbers, and bother to look at Twitter statistics, you'll find that almost nobody's customers use Twitter, with 80% of accounts being stone cold dead. Well, let's be in a forgiving mood, because it's the advice that is important, right?

What does Steve have to say, advice-wise! He says:

So, how do you find out if Twitter is for your company? Start learning to Twitter

• Find other businesses in your field that are twittering and follow them. Take notes, watch, and learn.
• Follow a few other companies that are twittering, but are not in your field, and follow them. What are they doing that you can use? What can you do better?
• Set a goal with your activity, e.g., awareness of your product, drive traffic to your blog or website, or to have a dialog with people who buy products like yours.
• Promote your Twitter profile on your web page, in the signature of your company’s email, and in other customer touch points.
• Choose a focus for your Twitter account that supports your branding and your goals.
• Just like when you are at a cocktail party, the worst offenses are to be uninteresting or boorish. So, start twittering useful, engaging, and relevant tweets!

Apart from the fact that not one suggestion actually answers the question Steve poses about whether Twitter "is for your company", the above makes several cardinal sins of logic.

Worst is the confusion of activity with results. It tells you you should `do`` these things to weight the value of Twitter, but none of them reference results. To repeat again, you cannot run a business based on activity (what you do). You have to run your business based on the results of your activities or you go bankrupt. Yes, the two are related. No, you cannot look at what you do or trivial interim goals to evaluate a business practice.

The second nonsense is that it`implied that one can do what others do and succeed. You can indeed learn, but once again you will only know what others DO and not whether what they do actually works. Since many social media initiatives are failing silently, since few businesses want to have it known they can`t make social media work (or they don`t evaluate), you are more likely to go wrong than right.

Listen. You ain`t Zappos, or Nordstroms.

So, yeah, follow Steve`s advice if you have nothing better to do with your time to further your business. Hire him, even. But if you are in need of this level of `knowledge`to make your business work, start looking for a job. A day job.<