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What social media marketing is NOT – my presentation at Affilicon 2009

For the second year running I had the opportunity to be on a panel at Affilicon, the Affiliate Marketing Conference & Exhibition that took place last week in Israel. Like last year, this year I was on the social media panel, and I decided to take a devil’s advocate approach to my presentation: to talk about what social media marketing is NOT.

The reason I took this approach is that you can find lots of information out there about how fabulous social media marketing is for promoting your business, organization, or other goals. However, with all this hype I fear that people are a) overestimating what social media can do for them and b) unaware of the challenges involved in using social media for marketing.

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of social media marketing. We’ve had good results with it here in our own company, and for clients. My point here is to provide a social media “chill pill” – some facts and realities about becoming active on the social web.

So here’s my presentation. I hope you find it useful, and as always would love to get your feedback and questions:

What social media is NOT – presented at Affilicon June 2009 

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7 Responses to “What social media marketing is NOT – my presentation at Affilicon 2009”

  • Comment by Yael Avron Dagan on Jun 07 2009 at 1:04 pm

    Hi Miriam,
    As someone who’s quite new in this social media world, and as a mother of a 3 months old baby–ie I barely have time for anything– your presentation was quite useful for me: short and efficient. It especially helped me to bring back all the social media fever into proportions.
    Best,
    Yael Avron Dagan

  • Comment by arnie draiman on Jun 07 2009 at 1:08 pm

    well done miriam – i am trying to work with non-profits to get their web presence more felt on facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. but unless they can really do it right, it ain’t worth doing!

    oh, what about “tush-ugly”….?

  • Comment by Miriam Schwab
    Twitter: on Jun 08 2009 at 8:23 am

    Yael, I’m so glad you found this presentation useful.

    Arnie – non-profits need a lot of work, from my experience. In most cases I’ve seen, they don’t even have the basics down, i.e. a normal, useful website. I’m actually speaking to a group of non-profits tomorrow through the Pradler Institute. We’ll see what state they’re in…

    As for “tush-ugly” – my kids would say “toosik-ugly” :)

  • Comment by Gidon Ariel on Jun 08 2009 at 11:42 am

    Miriam, great presentation!

    What it is missing – a link to your last year’s (or next year’s?) presentation: “What Social Media IS” and “Ten (or whatever you dig up; I’m greedy) Examples of Successful SMM Campaigns, Including At Least One [Hopefully] That You Can Identify With And Apply”

  • Comment by Miriam Schwab
    Twitter: on Jun 08 2009 at 11:43 am

    So Gidon, you want a positive angle, do you? Those are good topics, and I’ll definitely keep them in mind for the next time I’m putting together a presentation.

  • Comment by Nichola Stott on Jun 08 2009 at 1:12 pm

    Accessible, to the point and memorable presentation – which succeeds in the aim to pour a little water on the current social media fire. I completely agree that social media isn’t for everyone and hadn’t previously considered your example as to the physical barriers imposed on accessing social media in certain countries. I believe China has too imposed such access restrictions.

  • Comment by Miriam Schwab
    Twitter: on Jun 08 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Hi Nichola – thanks for the positive feedback! What you say about China is exactly correct: China recently shut down YouTube because of videos of Chinese policemen beating up Tibetans, and in advance of the recent 20th anniversary of the Tienanmen square massacre, China shut down facebook as well.

    Many internet marketers may not be aiming for these demographics, but it’s important to be aware of the possibility that a country you are targeting does not even have access to the platform you are using.

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