Social Media Marketing “White Noise”

Noun:

Noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities. Such noise as used to mask other noises: "a white-noise machine".

Now, I may be misusing that terminology, but what the hell, we always have to label things, right?

Not only is it annoying to some of us marketers, but it is also one more blemish that helps perpetuate the negative connotations the “real world” has about those of us in the internet marketing field. 

Think about this for a few seconds.

If you are using sites like Twitter and Facebook for social media marketing, who is really listening and do you listen back?

Take a look at your own social media sites and see if the vast majority of your posts, updates, or whatever are nothing more than blatant or veiled advertisements for whatever you’re peddling.  If so, you are part of the problem.

Whenever someone “follows” me or “friends” me, I’ll take a look at their page.  If it’s mostly links to their opportunity(ies), I’m far less likely to follow or friend them back.  Why would I?  They are offering me nothing in the way of friendship, advice, guidance, etc.  All they want is another pair of eyeballs for their nonstop ad posting.  

When viewing your social media accounts, how often do you actually see anything that interests you or might help you?  If you have a lot of friends and followers who are part of this “white noise” phenomenon, their self-promotion is highly likely to bury and drown out a question by someone needing help, a provocative thought posted by somebody who actually cared to take time to use their brain, a little nugget of wisdom by a selfless individual whose tip might earn you more money when implemented, or any number of other worthwhile gestures by quality individuals.

Here are a few recommendations to help eliminate some of the “white noise”:

  

• Have some balance between your advertising and helpful advice, anecdotes, personal interests, etc.
• Take some time to make legitimate comments/replies to friends and followers who are doing more than just posting ads.  Someone may need your help and you might have missed it.
• Start unfollowing/unfriending those who fill your feed up with nothing helpful.
• Be selective in who you follow or friend.  Check them out before you accept or initiate contact.
• If you think you’re too new to post anything helpful to anybody, then post your questions and see who is actually listening.  Share helpful answers.  If you have hundreds of followers and friends and nobody replies, it might be time to trim the fat.  Or your friends might need to trim theirs so they don’t miss an opportunity to help a newbie. ;)

Social Marketing can be a great tool when used correctly.  But as more and more marketers continue to abuse it and use it incorrectly, the effectiveness will diminish even faster than it would naturally.