This ‘expert’ actually didn’t realize that by promoting the medium as easy and free that no one would pay them to help them (hey, if there are any experts etc. etc. in finance who want to teach social media people what it means to be in business there is “gold in them thar hills” for sure). This phenomenon has created our current glut of social media ‘talent’ looking for a check which means they will say anything to get someone to sign up with them (look to the search marketing industry to see how well that has worked out).
But I digress. What the business world is finding out that despite the ‘low cost’ there is actually a very high cost to effectively be in the ‘social media for business’ game. Those who do this game for real know this already but for the poor Director of Marketing at XYZ Company the reality of what it takes is becoming very harsh very fast.
A survey conducted by R2Integrated (Internet marketing / social media service provider alert!) and reported by eMarketer shows that people trying to get into the social media game are getting a crash course in ‘there is no such thing as a social media free lunch’.
Looking at those results I wonder if there is not enough time and / or resources to do the other things listed like overcome skepticism of ROI, decide what platform, get executive buy-in, getting started and then learning the tools. Forget how much time it takes after you accomplish these things!
Once the social media marketing wannbe has cleared the hurdles stated above a curious thing happens. They realize that they still don’t’ have enough time and resources to do the social media marketing game effectively.
So what does this mean for the industry as a whole and the poor marketing executive for the upcoming year? I think it means that the social media industry needs to do a much better job of conveying the realities of the practice rather than promoting the fantasy of it. The social media “industry” is looking like a mirror image of its search marketing cousin that is rife with snakeoil salesmen and scam artists that it has lost credibility in the place it needs it most: the client side.
Stop with the hyperbole and the delusions that are more pitch than practical. Stop with the moving on to the next best thing that no one outside of the industry has heard about or understands and concentrate on the basics. Heck, these basics are still being hammered out so how in the world can the industry keep moving forward without collapsing the foundation of sand it has created?
As for the bewildered marketer? I would recommend a very serious assessment / audit process to start your 2011. Take the time to see exactly where your current strategies are working (so keep them) and not working (reassign the time and resources from dead spend to better areas). You may find that by trimming the excess marketing fat you can free up existing time and resources that were being wasted on the wrong activities. There, problem solved 
Of course, nothing is that easy. However, if we all spend 2011 plowing forward without truly owning what has or has not been done to stabilize the art of social media we can call 2011 “The Year the Social Media Industry Shot Itself in the Foot by Promising Too Much Too Soon.”
Your take?
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