5 Nightmare Social Clients

With social media and dollar
symbols dancing in their heads!

As social media become more mainstream the ways they can help become more apparent to business owners.

In social media strategy consulting this means a greater variety of owners looking for help to get started or do a better job in social. Sadly, it also means more potential social clients who are, to put it mildly, "nightmares." 

These are the folks who are sure they know they need social media (and at least they recognize this), but get things off to a bad start in initial discussions by making it clear that the help they need may be way beyond the scope of a social media strategist to provide.

Here are 5 Nightmare Social Clients that anyone in social media strategy consulting will walk away from (or at least find to be a lot of heavy lifting):

The Lemming:
"I need to be on social media because everyone else is. " This usually mild-mannered customer often has a business that really could benefit from making social part of the marketing and customer-relations plans, but is equally likely to have no idea why. This is the least-scary of the nightmare clients because if (and it can be a big "if") they are open-minded and eager to learn they can be persuaded to do all the right things in social and ultimately be successful. Equally likely, however, is that they will never truly buy into social and your time will have been wasted.

The Square Peg:
"Social media will save me money and get me extra sales." This type is usually doing OK with traditional media for advertising and marketing. But they’ve seen social media and it has dollar signs dancing around their head (i.e. more sales at less cost). This "Square Peg" approach to pushing sales and marketing messages won’t work in the round hole that is social media. The only way to save this nightmare is to show them some examples of successful "round peg" approaches … and even then their first question will likely be: "How cheaply can I do this?"

The Naïve:
"I already have a blog and a Twitter, I just don’t understand why they aren’t working." If it were this simple, wouldn’t everybody be enjoying phenomenal success? This fact escapes the Naïve. This customer is a nightmare because they usually "just want a few minutes of your time" and hope that a single consult will set everything right. The only hope of turning this person into a good client is showing them that a long-term plan with frequent checkups and tweaks will lead to success. Again, the reality check ("this will take time and effort") has a good chance of scaring them off.

The Unrealistic: 
"The way I see it you can help me find new customers etc. all for a few minutes a day on Facebook." One of the more frustrating potential clients: They will often go to great lengths to impress upon you how much they already know about social media and all they really want "is a quick guide to using this stuff for business." They often have no marketing plan (or a poorly-thought-out one) and usually don’t understand that to be effective social media will require time and patience. This is the first of the "nightmares" who may not be able to be rescued.

The Impossible: 
"What do you mean you charge $XX an hour and think it will take a minimum of XX hours to develop a plan for me? I thought this stuff (social media) was free and easy to use?" This is the nightmare you should walk (no, make that RUN) away from as soon as you hear these words. No amount of explanation and good examples will turn them around. They usually have no interest in social except as a way to make money/save expense and, more often than not, will not be willing to put in anything but a minimal effort. Like I said, RUN, away from this person.

So what do you think? Are certain potential social media strategy clients "nightmares"? Should you walk away from them or try to "save" them? Are there other types of "nightmares" out there?

Further reading: The customer is (not) always right

Social time off – what it teaches

 Note to blog followers: This is my first post is some time because a serious health issue with a family member meant I had to take some time to help them. This time off blogging and other social platforms inspired this post. 

In 6+ years of active participation in social media I’ve wondered, as I’m sure many do: Does all this social media stuff translate to my real and personal life? Recently I had a chance to find out. 

My Mum received a sudden and serious diagnosis. She needed immediate chemotherapy and might need help during this time. My good fortune is that I teach college and so the summer is a time I can easily (unlike my siblings) take time to help out. 

Off I went and for nearly six weeks my real life – and the prospect of someone I love perhaps losing theirs – dominated my time. My time on social media plummeted to almost nothing. Here’s what I learned from this time:

The good: 

Real people are genuine no matter the venue. Although I’m connected to more than 10,000 people across various social platforms there are just a few dozen who picked up on the various signs in social media and asked such things as "Is everything OK?" or "What’s going on?" And when I explained, were quick to offer help, both virtual and real, and support. 

Some people really are "better than advertized." Because I was traveling overseas I had mentioned to those who suggested that a meetup may be possible right before I returned to the United States. Because of the chemo schedule I was not sure of the exact date of departure and therefore a day to meet folks in real life. But at very short notice two people I had previously only known via Twitter and Facebook made room in their schedules to meet and one even introduced me to two other academics in my field of teaching, communication . Not only did I spend some time with these folks, but I came to appreciate them as truly exceptional humans. 

I feel a lot less connected with the world when social is not part of my daily routine. Yes, I read a newspaper or watched TV news or checked in on email when time permitted, but I did feel a lot less aware of the world at large without social media in the mix. This IS good, because I now know for sure that my time on social has this daily (and very important) payoff. 

The not-so-good: 

Shallow people really stand out on social media. A very few people, without asking why, decided I was "taking time off" from social and was committing a kind of "social media ranking suicide." One comment went something like this: "You do realize that an extended time of almost no activity on social media will KILL your Klout score." And if such things were life and death for me perhaps I would have been concerned, but they are not. (FYI: My Klout score dipped from 52 to 49, in case you’re wondering.) 

The vast majority of social connections are superficial. We all "know" this, but perhaps, nothing more starkly highlights it than being "gone" for an extended period and having the majority of your followers, fans, connections not notice. Does this mean the majority of social media is a waste of time? Not at all. (See Nos. 1, 2 and 3 above.) But it does help put it all in perspective. 

What do you think? Have you ever wondered what would happen in a personal crisis or enforced absence from social media? Has this happened to you? What did you notice? 

Further reading:
3 Great Ways to Take a Social Media Time-Out by Jorgen Sundberg.

At the IPO: 5 Warning Signs of Facebook’s future

Mirror, mirror on the wall ....
What is Facebook's future?

The Facebook initial public offering (IPO) is the news this week, but for those who can buy stock (a privileged few) and those who cannot (most of us) this may be a good time to pause and look at some signs that this stock sale is not the best thing for Facebook or social media.

Five stories and opinions I read this week have me concerned about the future of both:

As Facebook grows, millions say, 'no, thanks', by Anick Jesdanun, Deputy Technology Editor at the Associated Press: If Facebook is to live up to its pre-IPO hype and reward the investors who are clamoring for its stock this week, it needs to convince some of the resisters to join. Two out of every five American adults have not joined Facebook, according to a recent Associated Press-CNBC poll.

Does going public change the way Facebook views our private data? by Shawn Hess, WebProNews: Facebook is a social network, if advertisers can’t take advantage of your personal connections and personal preferences what good would it be? A recent Associated Press-CNBC poll found that almost 65 percent of Facebook users either weren’t sure or didn’t feel safe purchasing goods through Facebook.

GM to drop Facebook ads due to low consumer impact by Ben Klayman and Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters: General Motors Co. says it will stop advertising on Facebook, because Facebook's ads had little impact on consumers. "This does highlight what we are arguing is the riskiness of the overall Facebook business model," said Brian Wieser, Internet and media analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

Facebook's Future May Still Be in Play, by Peter Suciu, E-Commerce Times: Half of Americans believe the social network giant Facebook is just a passing fad, and a similar number believe the expected asking price in its upcoming IPO is too high, according to an Associated Press-CNBC poll.

The Future Is More Than Facebook, opinion by Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes on The Wall Street Journal: The time to make big returns in Facebook and in social media has passed.

So, what do you think? Is the future of social media a bigger and better Facebook? Or will the IPO be the high-water mark for Facebook and, possibly, social media?


Or, if you are a Facebook user: Is Facebook an essential part of your life? And, what, if any,  changes at Facebook would make you leave it?

Should student use of technology be banned in the classroom?

Students texting on smart phones or using their laptops and tablets to check Facebook has become seemingly ubiquitous in the college classroom.


But so has use of these technologies to look up more information to fuel a debate or research material for a writing assignment.


And while one student is clicking another may be distracted from the lecture or discussion of the moment.


What is an instructor to do?


Ban the technology outright?


Set strict rules about its use?


Throw up the hands and say it’s up to the students?


My colleague at the Rochester Institute of Technology Dr. John Angelis teaches in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business and he decided to ban technology in the classroom altogether.


This led to some heated debate and a Twitter hashtag campaign by students.


Reflecting on his decision John has written a thoughtful post about what to do next.


You can read it here: Technology in the Classroom: Blessing or Bane?

It’s April 1 and that can only mean …

A quick roundup of early April 1 fun found on the web


Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEOL: Yes, you read that right. It begins: "Hello, fellow Mashables. It’s Conan O’Brien, and I’ve got big news. Two hours ago, I purchased Mashable.com. I’ve taken it over." Mashable’s home page now also features a "Powered by Conan O’Brien" banner. 


Google Maps go 8-Bit: On the Google Maps page the top right clickable tab is Quest and it takes you to a beautiful 8-bit-style map that looks like it was made for the old Nintendo Entertainment System in your basement. Even the Street View images have been solarized and made into crazy color 8-bit views. 


Google announces driverless car for NASCAR: You may already be familiar with Google’s self-driving car project. So what would logically come next? A self-driving NASCAR race vehicle of course! Google announces the launch of Google Racing, a "partnership with NASCAR to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing." 


Google Street Roo - exploring the outback one bounce at a time: Google Australia finds a way to conquer one of the final frontiers on that continent - The Outback. The site announces that: "Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours." 


 And finally a game that asks the question… 


April Fools’ Day prank or real app? As more and more off-the-wall apps appear, it might be difficult to figure out what’s real and what’s not. So folks at The Next Web decided it’d be fun to play a game. The blog post offers descriptions of things that may or may not be real apps and at the end gives the correct answers. It’s more fun if you don’t skip to the end! 


Image from Mashable.com