Comments on: Social Media Is a Hammer, But I Am Not a Nail

By: In response to "Social Media Is a Hammer, But I Am Not a Nail" | Achieve Market Leadership

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:41:50 +0000

[...] The Achieve Market Leadership blog is sponsored by Crimson Consulting Group for marketing executives. We share our insights on opportunity analysis; strategy and planning; and operations and execution. In addition, we talk a lot about what’s happening in Interactive marketing (Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0). Join in, we want to hear from you. In response to “Social Media Is a Hammer, But I Am Not a Nail” Posted by Karen OBrien on 06/12/08 under Interactive Services I loved Cyndy Aleo-Carreira’s blog post on why we don’t need a social network for every product! I do agree that we don’t need a social network for every product! I always like to view social media from the perspective of the user - and often when I don’t see the value, its usually because I can’t relate to the network, they charge for what I can get for free elsewhere, or the user experience is so poor that I don’t bother. [...]

By: Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:09:14 +0000

@Drama Nosirree, I sure won’t. And I find those bears disturbing as well. I realize someone at some point got a giggle out of the “Do bears [blank] in the woods?” bit, but really, it’s served its purpose.

By: Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:06:59 +0000

@Leslie All pictures/videos of the Pleo are at his plog. See? Social media around a product done right. And I don’t have to clutter up my other blogs with that stuff.

@Mob media I think you hit the nail on the head. Ha!

@Paula There is definitely a new push for it, judging by efforts that I’ve seen. I don’t need to actually join the site to use it as an example. There are tons of brands who hear that “social media” is the next big thing in marketing and push for it, and have been over the past couple of years. The amount of money being spent in these marketing efforts would be better off targeting those same niche demographics in other areas. Otherwise, you get a lot of sign-ups, but a limited amount of retention as users realize that they just don’t have time for one more social network. The space is too crowded as it is.

@Karen I’ll have to check out your post.

@Andrea Comparing an online community for sharing stories and exchanging information about a $350 programmable dinosaur robot to a game site for children involving a $15 stuffed toy makes no sense at all. No, it’s not even close to an entertainment site, since UGOBE makes the assumption that you’d rather be playing with the robot’s programming than an online game. And I don’t think that social media IS a good extension for all brands. It clutters the already crowded space. There is a huge difference between building a community for the community’s sake and building one purely for marketing. I used the disparate examples for that reason: the Pleo community exists to facilitate communication between product owners. If UGOBE hadn’t built it, someone else would have because it’s a product that lends itself to a community sharing due to the programming feature. Would people really have built their own community around Clorox products? My guess is no, and that should be the deciding factor, in my mind.

By: Drama 2.0

Drama 2.0 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:50:09 +0000

So I take it you haven’t signed up for an invite to the upcoming Charmin Buttbook social network?

http://www.charmin.com/en_us/pages/videos_popup.shtml

By: Andrea Hill

Andrea Hill — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:07:01 +0000

Hi Cyndy,
I saw your post title elsewhere, and quickly stopped by. I heartily agree with you that not every product necessitates an online community. However, I’m of mixed opinion on your examples. From what you’ve said about Pleo, it sounds like Webkinz or Neopets: moreso an entertainment site than an online community extending from a given brand. In contrast, the Clorox site is a complement to the brand. If you find the name unfortunate, that’s just a marketing blunder in and of itself, and not related to whether or not social media is a good extention for the brand. It’s not clear to me if you think a niche community about cleaning isn’t relevant, or just that a niche community for women head-of-households isn’t relevant, and those are very different ideas…

By: Karen OBrien

Karen OBrien — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:25:16 +0000

I loved your post and responded to it in my blog http://www.webstrategyblog.com/ I wholeheartedly agree that we dont need a social network for every product! I’d simply like to see social media tools being integrated as a defecto part of most web content, that would eliminate the need ot build community or networks around everything.

By: Paula Martin

Paula Martin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:43:20 +0000

Momwire has actually been around for 2 years, so I wouldn’t call it “new”. I’m a member and love the program (I get mailings as well…the website is a small portion of it). It does not push products but it does give me good information geared towards moms like me. Maybe you shouldn’t comment on a site if you haven’t even seen it. Just a thought…

By: WinExtra » From the Pipeline – 6.3.08

WinExtra » From the Pipeline – 6.3.08 — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:20:37 +0000

[...] Social Media Is a Hammer, But I Am Not a Nail :: Profy – Cyndy suggests – quite rightly – that this effort to socialize everything being done on the web is going overboard and sometimes some things just don’t need to be socialized. [...]

By: Mob media: Hate mail and other comments from our readers.

Mob media: Hate mail and other comments from our readers. — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:01:48 +0000

Social media may be a hammer, but it sure ain’t always social.

By: Leslie Poston

Leslie Poston — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Pleo sounds cool. What, no photo of your Pleo?