Is there a “Tweet smell of success” in the real B2B world?

Back in the days of the now-notorious dot.com boom and crash, I came across a phenomenon that baffled me. I was called in to help market a start- Chart Crash up company (weren’t they all start-ups in those days?) offering online backup services — free. In the course of our first strategy session I asked about their business plan for making money.

The answer? They didn’t have one. Like a few companies had done before them, they would use the free service to generate millions of users, then have the company bought and make lots of money in the process. Thatâ€™s not a plan, thatâ€™s a hope and a prayer.

This is one of the reasons I am hesitant to jump into the world of social media. OK, I admit to being a control freak — and social media is hard to control — but it seems a little too much like branding to me and not enough like marketing. Where is the offer? Where is the call to action?

I recognize that services like LinkedIn and Twitter do provide excellent platforms for exchanging ideas. And in the long run, the contacts made through those services may lead to paid business. But in the real world, a business needs to make money and make it now.

Jim Sterne explains the reality beautifully in “Five Ways to Measure Social Media” which appeared in MediaPost’s Online Metrics Insider. His elaboration on these points is well worth reading, as it is a powerful picture into how people do or do not interact with the social media (or any medium, for that matter).

Here is an overview of his five points:
1. Did they get the chance? (to read it, that is)
2. Did they get the message?
3. Did they get the urge to repeat it?
4. Did they get a good feeling about it?
5. Did they get out their wallets?

His point? Social media may be a good place to spread the word about a company, but, as Jim says, “Let’s not forget that it’s about doing business in the end.”