Huckster by definition:
n. One who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.
v. To promote or attempt to sell (a commercial product, for example) in an overaggressive or showy manner.
Now that we have that definition out of the way, let’s get to the meat of this post!
A few days ago, I was on a webinar talking about “social media tactics” on how to use platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The webinar was put on by someone I have come to respect and admire, but I was so flustered by the end of the webinar, I just needed to write something about it.
I was enjoying the content, and even picked up a golden nugget or two, but about 45 minutes in the information it went from good social media practices, to “we’ll teach you how to game the system, get hundreds, if not thousands of followers every day, and well show you how to do it while you sleep!” In other words… automation!
Ugg, anything automated in social media (except for maybe a couple of exceptions) is complete and utter BS! Add on top of that, people were asked to spend (at the end of this particular webinar) a lot of money paying these “trainers/gurus” on how to learn to game the system, automate their social existence, and in my opinion fail in this world we call social media!
At the end of this presentation, I got the typical Huckster promo… “but wait, there’s more. If you buy now, we’ll not only train you to be a guru, but we will also throw in our 3 ebooks, and give you 1 hour of personal coaching… all for the low low price of $x.xx” you get my drift right?
I do not have a problem with these type of webinars, nor do I have a problem with training people on how to use social media, but if you are going to offer a course of any kind don’t do it with hype, smoke and mirrors. Don’t just sell your prospects on how they can have 50,000 followers in 3 months, and it will all be done while they sleep, teach your students how to do social media the right way!
Social media is indeed that… social. You can’t win by gaming your number of followers. People already on twitter can smell these techniques like a fart in the car, and they either #1 do not follow you back #2 are on an auto follow system and do not pay attention to you anyway, or #3 report you as spam.
It is funny to see how so many social media “guru’s” are applying the old traditional media tactics on twitter etc. They figure the more eye balls, or impressions you get, the more sales will eventually follow. And maybe that is true to an extent, but is that the route you want to take? Do you want to be “that guy” or “that company”? Social media is not a newspaper, TV or radio commercial, or even a billboard for that matter. Just because people may follow back your mega automated account does not mean they are listening or paying attention to you, your brand or your message.
Years ago, in our family business where I handled all our advertising, I would have reps come in from every media telling me how many subscribers they have, how many drive by impressions a billboard will get, how many listeners the radio station has, how many readers their particular publication has, what their demographics of all of the above is… well woop dee freaking doo man! In social media if people are not looking, listening or paying attention your message goes unheard… PERIOD!
So, to the hucksters selling this BS bill of goods, you are just taking money from the uneducated, teaching them bad black hat tactics, and just ruining the reputation for what is, arguably one of the best ways to market yourself and your business… social media! So STOP IT already!
To the audience or consumers of these hucksters… don’t buy into the hype, the automation or how easy it is. Building your brand in social media is hard work, and takes time. You get back from it what you put into it. Put in the time, and you will get the great results you desire.
So, you want to do social media the right way? Here you go! And I won’t charge you $999! (assuming you have a killer product, service or content.)
- Care
- Listen
- Care
- Engage
- Repeat
Find the tools and networks that will work best for you while applying the 5 steps above! And if I can be of assistance in helping your decide where to get started, you know where to find me!
Now… go get to work!
Feel free to leave a comment below… would love your feedback!
Until next time…
Doc
