The holy grail of training, the “learn from experience” paradigm, is just a polite way of saying “learn from making mistakes.” While learning from making mistakes is effective the mistakes can often be too damn expensive. I don’t think I’ll want my daughter to learn to drive by having a series of “learning experience” car crashes.*
Nor do I think marketers should have to pay the expense of learning what to use social networking media for? Marketing is too dang expensive already. Luckily there are some great resources available. One is Marketing Sherpa, a part-free part-fee site dedicated to all things web marketing.
Here is a chart they published today. It shows quite clearly that social networking works best for influencing rather than convincing, for subliminal rather than hard sell.
MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing
Like relationships themselves, social networking works on the level of intangibles, the level of thought and feeling as opposed to overt action. Nothing wrong with that. Sales work best when customers are already thinking of and favourably predisposed to your offering.
*Well, okay, maybe little bitty accidents, fender-benders, not head-on-crashes or rolling the family minivan. Fear does focus ones attention.
