Is Social Media Marketing The Ultimate Con Job?

This past week I’ve had social media on the brain.  The more I teach about social media as part of a traffic generation or marketing plan, the more I realize how ineffective it can be in the wrong hands.

There is a famous LinkedIn discussion stating that Social Media for businessis is crap, which has even spawned its own group. The irony that it was posted in LinkedIn and generated 2000 responses doesn’t escape me, however it did make me wonder how many people really get how to use social media, and how to measure the results of what they’ve been doing.

The part of the thread I saw made some great points, and just reinforces my belief that the general thrust of marketing social media marketing is absolutely backwards and confusing the issue. Not to mention that it turns off the people  it was most meant to help.

Then again the money I make from products and services about social media is minuscule in relation to my overall income from teaching traffic generation and building traffic systems, so perhaps I’m the wrong person to ask. I’m just not in the camp that thinks social media is the Second Coming. I think it’s one tool in a huge toolbox.

But I digress.

I bring that up to be very clear that I’m not asking whether social media as a marketing tactic, traffic generation method or way to facilitate networking is a con.

Nor am I asking if the people who call themselves social media experts are con men.  As much as I make fun of people who call themselves social media experts (as opposed to those who are called social media experts by others), much of it is tongue in cheek. If you compare me to Mark Joyner, I’m not a marketing expert.

Of course that’s not a title I claim either, but you see what I’m getting at – many of the self-proclaimed experts may not know as much as I do, but they know more than they need to in order to help a newbie.

So I don’t look at titles, I look at results.

No, I’m talking about the topic of my last social media guide on Social Media Traffic  Strategies, in which I taught that the core mission of using social media was to get other people to do what you wanted – buy, subscribe, visit your site, or in spreading your content, cause others to do the same.

I didn’t stop there either, I went through a how-to process that some people feel is dangerous – it is generally frowned upon to teach people how to get other people to do what you want them to do.

Today, I was led to these thoughts by a post at Cornwall SEO, regarding Social Media Myths.

And while I don’t quite agree that social media isn’t about conversation, I will say that the extent to which it is, is to get people on your side, and engaged in your content, product, site, cause, struggle, whatever.

Why?

Because at some point you want them to do something for you.

And in black and white, stark naked on the page it looks so… Machiavellian.  On its surface it sounds so manipulative and…. cold.

There are two theories to answer this.

Theory one – it is manipulative if we’re being honest, because everything is. At the core of all our marketing actions is a selfishness. Even when we give we’re doing it to receive – even if it’s to receive that good feeling that comes from giving.

That seems like one of those “dark but true” things. But take a look at theory two:  while it’s true that we are committing acts of marketing for our own selfish gain, social media is showing us that it’s deeper than that.

Because with social media we are on the spot to be the initiator if we want results. The return good deeds seldom come as the fruit of the originating tree. So in order to be any good at social media, it can’t be all about what’s in it for me or our actions ring hollow and we end up with no connections.

Otherwise we have our choice of other, less touchy-feely, interactive ways to get similar results.

We can buy links.

We can place ads.

We can use IM or email instead of Twitter and Facebook and still convey information.

We can trade favors privately to get content spread.

And we don’t.

So I don’t think that social media is about the ultimate con job…

BUT I’ll stop short at saying it doesn’t follow some of the same rules…