Today’s Inbox is full of “Get Rich with Social Media” marketing classes. I can learn to make $5000 a month from Pinterest, and “Leverage My Instagram for Big Bucks”, while learning the “Secrets of LinkedIn Marketing” with some big-time Guru who made all his money selling Get Rich on LinkedIn courses without ever having to market something fucking real… ya know.
Damned sick of this bullshit. It is intellectual bullshit and in many cases downright dangerous to your business.
There are big problems with “social media” marketing.
It is cheap.
It is ubiquitous.
It is ‘fun’.
It is easy.
None of those attributes would be applied to anything with a high return.
If I came to you and said: “Hey, I have a really fun way to make a lot of money and it is fun, super cheap, and way easy” you would make me to be a charlatan.
And you would be right.
There is NOTHING that meets that criteria.
There are no high-paying jobs that are easy, have no difficulty associated with them, are super fun, and super cheap to attain.
If it is fun and easy, it has no value.
If everyone is doing it, and it is cheap, it has no value.
Instagram, FB, LI, Snap, Pinterest, Twitter and the lot are fun.
They have zero costs.
They are used by millions.
And they are so easy that literally, anyone can do it.
They have no value to associate to your marketing effort.
ZERO.
There are always serendipitous things that happen by engagement, but as a serious marketing tool they seemingly exist only to make money for those selling their “How to Get Rich On Instagram” courses to people looking to not have to work hard, have fun, not spend money, and have clients simply delivered for them.
Yeah… that is not how life works, champ.
Choosing something that is hard means that there will be far fewer applications to compete with. Choosing to do it well means even fewer competitors.
Spending money on a direct mail piece puts you in a much smaller group. You are no longer passively awaiting recognition, you are demanding it. You are choosing to be recognized.
Going out and meeting potential clients is not passively waiting for a miraculous moment of luck, it is engaging people and the group for that becomes even smaller.
Engaging with the right people is fucking hard!
You have to find them, you have to figure out how to get in front of them.
You have to make sure that when you do you make a great presentation.
C’mon Sparky, did you really think being a professional photographer or musician or writer was just a degree and a lot of “hoping” while you sit waiting for the cosmos to give a shit?
Taking your work to the people who you want to see it is hard, demanding, tough, costly, and you may be in uncharted areas… but isn’t that what we do? We help them plan solutions to get their product in front of people.
If you know where the ad agency is, set up a 6 easel show outside of the building at closing time.
Give away your flyer or card. MEET them.
Get arrested.
Do a photo story on the day you were arrested for showing your book on the sidewalk outside the agency. “My Images were so good I got arrested” and take the story to the agency.
Write an article for Ad Age about the day you decided to take charge of your life and SHOW your damn photos to the art directors that YOU wanted to and got arrested.
Take selfies with the arresting officers and be gracious and kind.
And yes, there are other ways that do not include municipal fines and Gendarmes, but you get my drift.
This past week’s newsletter touches on the inability to give specific implementation plans to people, and this is exactly the reason.
You do what YOU gotta do.
But passively hoping your Instagram feed is seen by the “right people” may not be a wager I would bet my creative career on.
But it is totally fucking popular.
ADDENDUM:
Should you have an Instagram, FB, Pinterest et al account?
Sure.
And you should spend what you believe is the appropriate time on those platforms.
But you must stop believing that is ALL you need to do.
Seriously, Sparky – there is a hell of a lot more that is important as well.