Is there at least one social media outlet that does not have a marketing angle?

Every time some new social media thing catches on, some marketing genius is going to tell you how you can use it for your product or service.

At a certain point it gets a little ridiculous. I just saw an article about using snapchat for marketing. Give me a break.

People don’t get on social media to shop. They’re trying to chat, or read about cats, or catch up with old high school friends or something like that. Each social media outlet will have a different focus, but generally speaking it’s about people, not about products. Hence the word “social.”

Most of these “marketing implications of social media” things seem like nonsense to me. Or, rather, they’re ways for young marketers to try to make a business case for their social media addiction.

Don’t fall for it.

Lies, damned lies and the push for mobile apps

“People spend 86 percent of their time on apps, therefore you need to build an app for your magazine!”

Have you ever heard something like that before? It makes about as much sense as this: “People spend 1/3 of their time sleeping, therefore you need to make a dream version of your magazine.”

How to Lie with Statistics was not supposed to be a guidebook!

Yes, people spend lots of time on apps — those apps being Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga, etc. They are not reading news or other professional content!

Never try to base your publishing strategy on rolled-up stats about general internet behavior because the vast majority of internet behavior has nothing to do with publishing!

Don’t ask “how many pages are viewed on mobile?,” or “how much time is spent on mobile?,” or “how many people have a mobile device?” People who use such stats are trying to deceive you. Often they’re trying to get you to buy their app-making software or service.

Rather, ask questions like this.

• “How many of my customers (and people like my customers) who read the kind of content I produce read it on a mobile device?”
• “When my customers, or people like my customers, read on mobile devices, what kind of stuff do they read, and can I re-target my content to be like that?”

Those are the most important questions. After you’ve addressed those two (and only after you’ve addressed those two) ask this.

• “When other people (who aren’t my customers) read content on mobile devices, what kind of stuff do they read, and can I re-target my content to be like that?”

The mobile-first, everything digital, “we love disruption” crowd will try to do this completely backwards. They’ll tell you to do new content for a new audience on a new platform.

Sure, do that. But do it last. First, only change one thing, e.g., new content to your current audience on your current platform, or your current content for your current audience on a new platform.

You can’t go to new people with new stuff in a place you’re not known and expect to do well.

Here’s an article that makes some similar points and is worth your time: News Media Should Drop Native Apps.

More images, fewer clicks?

Here’s an interesting study from Constant Contact. Study: More Images Means Less Clicks for Email Marketers. (Argh. It’s “Fewer,” people, not “Less.”)

… the Constant Contact study found that when an email has more than 3 images, the click-through rate greatly drops.