Penn Olson on Social Media and Marketing

I don't know wether or not this is a good thing.
I read your stories too…. but 9 out of 10 times you focus on the wrong things.

I tend to read a lot that is about the thing itself and very, very, very little which is geared towards strategy. I don't mean implementation, I don't mean tactics… I mean strategy.
What happens now is that a lot of people feel the need to do this just because it's there and they know a LOT of people are using SM. But that is no reason to use it… the correct reason is that it should solve a problem that you have.

This for instance: http://www.penn-olson.com/2009/08/18/how-to-ent… more or less says: you have to go into social media marketing…. while maybe what some marketers need to do think before they act. Make a REAL strategy. Then try to implement it. And then learn along the way.
But without clear goals, without knowing exactly what you want to do, and why you want to do it you will always/never* reach the intended goal.

So please… if you are to say one thing… tell them that.

*depends on the kind of person you are.

Hi Koningwoning!

Thanks for the feedback.You are right about the importance of goals and strategies. No matter how much effort you put in, you are just going towards the wrong direction without a clear strategy. We have tried to emphasize that using social media for the sake of using it is naive, and goals are the first thing to set before doing anything at all – http://bit.ly/9cbrdY Unfortunately, we can't be repeating the same points in every blog post. Focusing on the right things is critical, but it is not possible to only focus on one important thing every single time. Social media marketing is a process, we need to share what we know from start to end.

Since most people might have missed this important point, I will be writing a blog post to clarify that (: Please let us know if there are any other improvements we can make, we are still learning!

Nicely pointed out Koningwoning. Thanks and i guess sarah has answered your feedback well.

Big fan of Penn Olson over here in Toronto, Canada. Keep up the great work!

Well done Sarah Chong & Willis Wee with your Blog you have done a pretty good job within the last year.

And by the way to build up 100.000 page views a month within one year, how cool is that? That's just amazing, go on like that, stay tuned!

I like your Social Media Blog much and I will stay a fan and I will go on to recommend your Social Media Blog to all my friends! Thanks for sharing all these great Social Media Tips!

With kind regards from Austria
Ortwin Oberhauser

Great feedback – and you are completely right.

probably just a bit of frustration that a lot of people are focussing too much on that – and that there are too much charlatans cheering them on (and telling them that is the way to go about it.)

I edited my post and forgot to paste the “well done on the impressive growth – it's not out of the air…. never expected you guys to be students. Keep up the good work 0- after that came the “but…” – better late than never