Ask your doctor if social media is right for you

I've been fighting a bad cold for the past couple weeks.  A week ago Sunday when my condition worsened, I went to an urgent care center to be checked out by a doctor, just to make sure I didn't have a nasty infection brewing.  The doctor said it was probably some sort of bug that I'd have to fight through, and that it was probably viral (make up your own viral marketing pun here), so antibiotics likely wouldn't help.  But then she said, "But if it would make you feel better that I’m giving you something, I'll write you a prescription for an antibiotic.  It probably won't do anything, but if you want it, I'll write it."

This experience made me think about how many individuals and companies are taking a similar approach to social media.  A marketing manager hears he's supposed to be using Twitter, or his company should have a page on Facebook, so he spends a small amount of time to establish these things.  It makes the marketing manager feel better -- so when the boss says "I've been hearing a lot about this Twitter -- what are we doing about it?", the marketing manager can tell his boss that he has already set up an account.  Never mind that their new Twitter account is probably not going to move the needle at all without some sort of planning, real thought, or concentrated effort behind it!

To many, Twitter and Facebook are the miracle drugs of the marketing world.  Even if the symptoms of the company's marketing plan don't call for them -- and even if they probably won't do anything to alleviate a company's real marketing pains -- sometimes it's just easier to write the prescription.

Photo by rodrigo senna