Look, I know I’m always the first person to say engaging with existing conversations on Facebook and Twitter is a great idea. Getting your brand out there by riding existing hashtags or just finding people who talk about what you’re selling is the number one way to do social right now.
But sometimes you might find yourself in the middle of engagements that don’t feel quite on brand to you, meaning: the people you are talking to aren’t really the type of people that’ll buy from you.
In that case, what is the ROI of joining those conversations? Is there any?
I’ll give you an example: Apple comes out with their watch, and everyone is talking about it and using the hashtag #AppleLive to join the discussion. What’s the ROI of Twinkie being in the middle (or to the right or left, wherever) of that discussion? Why would they say anything at all?
My answer? Maybe they shouldn’t have. The value there is very low.
There is, of course, one upside. And that’s the home run. The anomaly. Where someone who cares about that trending topic really enjoys the content you’ve created, and then amplifies you. They raise awareness for your brand and the products you sell. While this might not be totally applicable to Twinkie, as most people know what they are already, what I’m saying absolutely applies to a small business in this same conundrum; to tweet a trending topic, or not to tweet (I had to, couldn’t resist)?
People have become the infrastructure of media distribution. Riding the conversation of what people care about with the hope that they create the retweet, the reblog, or the share that then creates the amplification you need does have some rogue, long tail upside.
But. Speaking to and communicating with people who are not going to buy your product no matter what does not have enormous ROI. Choose your battles. Choose your conversations. If you don’t have a really good solid idea to engage with a trending topic, maybe let that one go. While I am a firm believer in putting yourself out there to optimize the chances of something awesome happening, it’s better to say something smart than something dumb, right? Pick the opportunities that could be a home run for you. Curate and get smart about it.
