Signal vs. Noise: A Cadre of Content Creators does not a Social Media Strategy make

There seems to be a growing notion that Tweets or blog posts by the pound are an effective way to gain attention and drive website traffic.  The corollary to this is the old saw that "content is king."  Just hire bloggers or Tweeters to crank out content and you will be well on your way to accomplishing your marketing goals.

I was the PR suit in a sales kickoff meeting for a client recently.  When the topic turned to promotion and PR, one of the participants mentioned an acquaintance who was in a business that hired cheap interns to go out and Tweet on their behalf, resulting in quadrupling of their website traffic (I am skeptical, besides this on its face this could just mean an increase from one unique visitor per day to four). 

I have a cousin who has done some very impressive Web marketing work to boost his real estate brokerage business.  He told me that his most recent move was to hire a former journalist to launch a blog to help drive traffic to his site.  When I checked in with him to find out how it was going, he said he had not really monitored the effort and was pretty much letting her do her own thing.

Time Magazine had a story (thanks, Anne for pointing this out) that described the growing number of companies that are hiring people to Tweet about their brands.

The online world presents many challenges to marketers.  Where once we had more control over the message, and there was an orderly way for getting it out, today it is the Wild West by comparison.  There is much more noise, many more distractions, and anyone can be a publisher or influencer.  Amidst these changes, it is tempting to find easy answers.

To be successful I believe you have to reverse roles and put yourself in the shoes of the buyer.  As I often say, it is not a content game, content is a commodity these days.  It is an attention game.  You  need to be where your buyers are.  But that by itself is not enough.  You need to boost signal to rise above noise.

To better understand signal to noise ratio, recall the old vinyl records.  The music represented the signal, and the snaps, hisses and crackles from the scratches in your record and hum from the amp represented the noise.  Companies such as Dolby developed technologies to amplify signal and suppress noise.

Similarly, a way to get attention and boost your "signal" is to be vocal about issues that your customers care about - issues that reflect a knowledge of a market space - and impress customers that they can learn, solve problems or improve their experiences by listening to you, or consuming your content.

With all the distractions these days, and based on years of conditioning from email, consumers have a sixth sense about Spam.  They can easily discern the Tweets and blog posts that can actually help vs. the ones that just add noise.  The latter will do nothing for you, in fact they could tarnish the brand you work so hard to build.

Comments

[Stephanie Waugh]

Has there been much in-depth research on how tweeting can help a company, or is this phenomenon still too new to fully understand the benefits?

[rgeller]

I have not run across any studies yet although there is tons of anecodtal evidence - many stories about improved customer service, raising awareness, etc.

I think you need to carefully define terms - decide what you mean by "helping a company" and what you want out of the effort - and then set expectations and plan your use of the technology accordingly.