Don't Get Ripped Off By Social Media Marketing

I would estimate the fastest-growing marketing in our industry is agencies and individuals trying to convince us that social media marketing is the future.

I get multiple offers daily, and I assume you are getting them also.

Don't fall for their pitch; you will lose your money and achieve virtually nothing, and you will face a statistical guarantee that almost no lead will be harvested.

Why? Kathy Martin, Ph.D., and Bruce Martin, Ph.D., national experts on social media, explain an easy way to understand how this type of marketing works.

The River

If you are standing on the bank of a river and watch a log float by, you may see it. If you were not standing there, you would definitely not see it.

In a comparative view, social media marketing is simple: You post and hope someone sees it.

But don't forget the data; experts track it and know how to interpret it.

The data tells us that only 3% of original posts are actually seen.

For example, if you post 100 times a month on your social media sites, only three posts will statistically be seen in a month.

Does that translate to three leads a month? No, it translates to being seen three times.

You have to use more data to know how many leads 100 posts a month will generate.

Data shows us 5%, meaning that just 5% of the 3% "deep looks" actually become leads.

The Posts

To make social media marketing work, you would need to post thousands of posts, and please note: The 3% "deeper look" rate is based on the marketer posting original content.

In other words: You will need large amounts of original content, not content being used over and over.

You might have noticed a certain life insurance company offering a do-it-yourself application. How many other agents are using the same marketing postings as you?

If you could and would post 100 marketing posts a month, this would translate into 1,200 posts a year. Those posts would generate 36 deep looks, and about two actual "call to action" leads per year.

If you outsource your social media marketing to a marketing firm, on average, your two-lead production for 12 months could cost in excess of $5,000 per lead, or more.

But that is at 100 posts a month, and at what cost? And, remember, these are not strong leads; these are only interested people.

If the real cost is $1,000 to $2,000 a month for social media marketing, it's easy to realize the cost becomes prohibitive.

Why?

Why is social media marketing so popular, and why do so many invest their marketing money in chasing this dream?

I think the reason is simple: It looks very cool to see the marketing pieces.

Social media marketing becomes almost mystical, and almost no one really understands how it works.

Social media sites are in control and regulate the visitors based on their business model, and there is not much we can do about it.

Here is the secret about how social media marketing makes money: The social media sites earn money by posting your marketing, the marketing company charges for the creative marketing, and we, the agents, get to pay upfront and hope for the best.

I am sorry to be the one who tells you, but social media marketing is a sucker bet unless you have some way to expand the posting to a very large number.

Expansion needs to be in the 50,0000 to 100,000 posts-per-month range, then, you might have enough content floating around to generate leads and make sales from this source.

Bill Broich, co-owner of Annuity.com, also works as a content marketing strategist for financial professionals...