Something else to consider: the selling process should be a dialogue. It is one thing for customers to point out or even rant about an issue via the media (including SM) and another to do something about it, i.e. follow through. If a company “can’t hear” via social media because they are not listening, then will they take note via email, U.S. mail, a phone call or even a visit to their office?

In some regards, using social media as a primary or alternate way to communicate makes communication cowards of many. SM also minimizes the conflict resolution process such that people don’t talk through issues more than they sensationalize them. With SM, a problem is often public knowledge before a company is aware and then they react in a way they wouldn’t without pressure.

Another takeaway to add to the points you made is for companies to count the cost of engaging in social media—not just financial, time invested or brand awareness, but weigh heavily the type of dialogue to have with current and prospective customers and the means that works best to maintain that dialogue.

I agree. It is a tool that if it is the right place for your brand and is planned and executed well it can be a very viable form of advertising through building relationships through awareness. It can hinder especially if the incorrect tool is utilized or is not used to its fullest. Companies hear the good stories, the buzz and feel that they have to jump in. Social media like every other form of advertising has to be the right place. I do however think that brands need to monitor whether they are engaging or not. In this example, there apparently is no brand monitoring as there has been no response from their camp. That is one part that companies do not realize is very important. SM has given us a chance to talk about people companies, products with a listening channel like never before. I can never stress it enough to people that we are in a time where quite frankly we never know what will spread around. We can speculate as we do with some mediums in advertising but there is no absolute and with that having a mention like this one without any form of response is pretty much a sign/lesson to all marketers and even companies. This is not hurting them and tarnishing their brand as it relates to them selling the lifestyle as it is one persons opinion who they may respect or not. That is not the point, it is how the community around us sees this and learns from it.

Your point about people relating to people who like the same things is a big deal – esp for them as the people make up the community and call it home. They have such a chance to bring these people together through their SM and take advantage of the listening station they could create. We know people love to talk through their association of commonality. This we see with fans of sports teams. think that they should take a step back and really evaluate where they audience would have a chance to talk. Their audience is going to tell them what they like and not like though talking with others.

Thanks for reading and sharing your $02.

MY THOUGHTS?
Regardless of advances in technology, I believe that some aspects of marketing are classic and should remain: to build awareness, state your purpose, target your audience and narrow your focus, Losing sight of your purpose or attempting to become all things to all people via SMM is the quickest way to compromise AND fall short of brand promises.

For example, pushing companies to get into social media for the sake of controlling messages will no more curve the chatter about a company than holding a press conference to outline that company’s annual agenda. People are going to talk regardless. The desire to be heard is what gives social media life.

Certainly, conversations are an opportunity to refine a company’s story, improve service offerings, develop affinity and even become credible or famous. However, the reality is that people don’t relate to things as much as they relate to other people who like the same things. Another reality is that all SM “friends” are not necessarily fans and vice-versa, which can either make or break SM campaigns.

I agree that it takes a detailed, fully executed plan and process in place to have a successful SM campaign. Either way, of all promotional options, SM is the one tool that can hinder just as much as it can help.

Thanks so much for the link. This is a classic example of how their intentions to be a part of the SM community were there but their pre-planning was not executed well. This is so very common and what they do now is going to be the tell all of how they are accepting of and plan to utilize social media going forward. Their traditional adv campaign was fantastic (which was created prior to my being employed by their agency) and having the chance to help implement and being involved in their research studies did sell the lifestyle so I would have thought that they were perfectly suited to bring their offline efforts online.

I do hope that they are able to take the time to learn more about SMM (or they could call me and my agency can help) as when the housing market does turn around in a few years in Las Vegas, they will be ahead of the game.

There are 4 posts in the series:

1) How to Run a SMM Campaign. This is the formal process description on how to run your campaigns according to the Process Mantra of Think, Plan, Do, Measure and Repeat. And because this process specification calls for one to measure ROI as one of the metrics to use in monitoring your campaign, the other 3 posts cover:
2) How to measure the ROI of your website as a whole
3) The 10 best free ROI calculators on the Web and
4), How to build your own ROI calculator so that you can measure the ROI of your SMM.

Our clients have been delighted with this approach, as it offers significant benefits over the situation you describe – not enough pre-planning, nor enough thought into what effort to do when and where, and then the old bugaboo of not enough measurements (if any) to see how you are really doing, as opposed to how you think you are.

Hope this helps – here's the link:

http://bit.ly/cEc0ln