I read this article, Why automating social media marketing could change Facebook, at Mashable Business, and I got so angry, well, let’s say I got mad! The article is very good and points out several problems that could arise when many companies try to get an easy ride to success on social media. There are always people who try to outsmart the system by using shallow methods that lack credibility.
Since we have been in the business of creating websites since the middle of the 90’s, we have seen a few methods come and go. At one point, it was about meta-tags – because we didn’t understand enough by that time, and because the search engines worked in another way, we put a lot of work hours into coming up with amazing, long lists of meta-tags so that the homepage would get a good position in the search results. But then it got worse, people started to write all kinds of words as meta-tags like ”sex” or ”porn” just to get more visitors. Hey? What’s the point of having more visitors if they are not part of your target group? It’s about helping the right customers to find the right homepage. Right?
I am not a huge fan of Google, but they are absolutely right when they change the search criteria; what really counts is activity in updating together with good, relevant content on your homepage. Today, your homepage can get banned from Google’s search engine if you try to fool it. That is so good.
Even so, we still get calls from companies that want to help with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Or worse, our clients get these calls and start to think it might be a good idea. But it seldom is. They work in the grey zone, trying to outsmart Google. The right thing to do is to keep your homepage up to date with relevant, high-quality content. That is all you need to do. That is all you should do. You have a homepage to make it easier for people to find information about your company or your products.
Since social media has become an important part of marketing, people now try to outsmart social media. One example is a person I admired from the start, Guy Kawasaki. I thought he was so cool when he was an Apple Evangelist, and I’ve read his book ”The Macintosh Way” with great delight. That’s why I started following him on Twitter; that’s how I found him on Alltop, and I also bought his book, Enchantment. Somewhere on this road I lost it… or he lost it?
The tweets I get when following @GuyKawasaki come from a tweet-robot. Where is the enchantment in getting tweets from a tweet-robot? They are just links to articles from AllTop. Some of the articles might be interesting, but I feel cheated because the Twitter handle should be something like @AllTopGuyKawasaki (though it’s a bit long, and that’s not my problem). Transparency. Be honest about who you are and what you are representing. That’s enchanting. It’s not enchanting to send out automatic tweets under a personal name. I’m sorry, Guy, but I just don’t buy that. It gets shallow.
Let’s get back to where this blog post began, automating social media. I believe it’s impossible to automate social media because when you start publishing automated updates, you lose the personal touch, and it’s no longer social. Then it becomes yet another way to spit out information. Social media is about creating interest in your person or your company. Social media is about dialogue and participation. Social media is about sharing and caring. A tweet-robot or any other automatic method can’t ever be social. The value of Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of social media lies in their social nature. Simple as that.
I can accept that you, at certain times, set a date to publish an update or blog post, such as when you are launching a new product. But it should be used very carefully and never in a way that imitates real, personal updates. Then it is cheating, and cheating is the opposite of trust.
I’m so sorry, all you people at companies that think you can replace human beings with robots and become masters of social media – I just don’t believe you. You will only add suspicion to social media. And that’s what makes me mad. Stay away from social media if you don’t get the concept of being social!
