Social Media Marketing: Sharing a little bit of this… and a little bit of that.

Attempting to decide what content to include in one’s personal or professional website can be a bit like trying to decide which of your own organs you like best.

I’ve been asked time and again –

“What do I talk about on my blog? Should I talk about my interests? Kids? Vacations? Health?…”

And, inevitably, the next question is –

“Or would it be better to keep the topic(s) of discussion strictly business?”

While there is no one right or wrong answer – it really does depend on the website owner’s personal preferences and purpose. Generally speaking, however, its good to maintain an open dialogue with your audience,

This is not an easy task for some (myself included).

Big Businesses

Business websites, especially for small business owners, can sometimes walk a fine line between being personable and relatable to downright T.M.I.

Failure to create a branding strategy that closely ties into a marketing campaign, can set a company up for disaster.

Consider the following examples:

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Vice President, Scott McClellan, disclosed HP’s new Web-storage feature on his LinkedIn account, thereby giving competitors a sneak-peek into the computer giant’s next move. Needless to say, McClellan lost his job, the company lost its footing in that emerging market, and others reaped the benefit.

Talk about one heck of a “DOH!” moment.

(Click here to read the full story by Bloomberg News)

Or how about online food resource, Epicurious.com, who posted the following two tweets shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, causing a slew of angry comments.

Epicurious promptly removed the Tweets, but not before they were deemed insensitive and insulting.

(Click here to read more corporate social media fails)

Epicurious’ dilemma is perhaps one of the greatest examples of the fine line: they attempted to convey something deeply personal – awareness and compassion for the Boston bombing victims, but it failed because they were attempting to make it commercialized.

So what should Epicurious have written instead? Perhaps, “Our hearts go out to all of the victims and families affected by the Boston Marathon bombing #BostonStrong”

How could McClellan proudly promoted his company’s achievements without giving away the farm? Perhaps by alluding to something big in the works like this, “HP is about to unveil something BIG. We’re talking game changing big! Stay tuned for more details, but for now its under wraps.”

Simple right?

Small Businesses

But what about small, locally owned and operated business who want to reach a larger audience pool?

Cut and dry, straight-forward social media posts don’t often do as well because these companies depend on their customer’s placing a higher value on personal relationships, thus the reason they visit local businesses as opposed to national, or global Goliaths, like Walmart.

Take for example clothing boutique DASH – owned by the now famous Khole, Kourtney, and Kim Kardashian. DASH humbly started small, with only one location in Los Angeles, but has since opened stores in Miami and New York and is now almost as culturally buzz worthy as its namesakes. Recently, they launched a new store – Kardashian Khoas – in Las Vegas, which Kim was happy to promote via Twitter to her 19 million followers… Yes, you read that right – 19 MILLION – which is a lot of potential customers!

While the Kardashian family has instant brand recognition (more than they would like at times), they built their brand based on allowing potential customers to view the owners’ lives through their hit reality TV show, ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians,’ as well as personal Twitter and Instagram accounts where each sister has their own massive following.

The voyeurism-driven marketing has not only allowed the sisters Kardashian to branch their boutiques into other markets, but has also helped build a platform for their own brand of clothing, fragrance, and handbags which are sold not only in their own stores, but also in Sears stores nationwide. The show’s popularity allowed potential consumers to view the other members of the Kardashian/ Jenner family, which aided the modeling and brand ambassador careers of Kylie and Kendall Jenner, who now have their own clothing lines, as well as the up-scale sock business of Rob Kardashian.

The success of the Kardashian’s social media marketing is a double-edged sword – while it has boosted their bottom-line it has also opened the family up to an overwhelming amount of scrutiny over their personal lives.

Again, the amount of “personal” information a company shares with its social media audience is a decision requiring a lot of thought and consideration to the company’s branding and market mission.

Personally, I like it when company’s show their humanism – after all, its people who make business happen, right?

Too Many To Chose From

One of the last questions clients ask me is, “Which sites should I use?”

This can be one of the toughest questions to answer because there are so many innovative ways to use social media that it seems shortsighted to dismiss any options, but this can lead to another type of social media marketing failure.

For example, a construction company will likely not fair as well on Pintrest, a  popular image-heavy site geared toward inspiration, as say, a clothing designer. But, if a construction company offers building design and architecture as one of their services, then it might be a perfect fit for showcasing new blueprints and design inspirations.

Likewise, a spa or salon might not benefit as much from having a Twitter feed as they would a Google+ account which can help drive SEO (search engine optimization) traffic, or YouTube to guide their customers through the use of video tutorials.

The Bottomline

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media – what works for one company might exceed the comfort level of another. Careful thought and consideration to what to share and whether the possible backlash from anonymous viewers might be damaging both to the company and the person sharing is at the top of the list when making the choice for how much is too much.