First he had to wait about a minute for the Flash code to load in his browser. After waiting through the splash page animation to finish creating the display, he saw a link for locations. He clicked that link and then had to wait another 30 seconds for the flash animation to load the next screen.

Your buisness site does not need animation. What it does need is the ability to provide information your customers need in an easily understandable way. Jamba Juice is not the only violator. Too many businesses are using Flash-based websites these days.

Oh sure, Flash is fancy. User’s don’t like it though. Flash is slow. If your potential customer has a slow connection, that person is going to have to wait for your fancy website to load. In the example I gave, we had access to a broadband connection and still had to wait to get to useful content. Even a graphics intensive html site will load faster than flash. Flash based sites are made for the site owner’s desires instead of the needs of the audience – or potential customers.

Business owners, your customers do not care that you put eye candy on your web site. Flash is good technology when used appropriately. Basing your entire site on it is not an appropriate use. Give your customers an easily accessible site where information they want can be found quickly.

Oh, and my friend got so frustrated with waiting for that web site to load, he never did go to Jamba Juice that day. Don’t let Flash ruin your sales too.

Google’s click-fraud is a money-making scheme. Scammers set up a Google Adsense account and then set up web sites that are nothing but pages of Google ads. You’ve probably seen one of these “link farms” if you typed in a misspelled URL. The page creator then sets up a system to go to his own pages and automatically clicks on the links. He then waits for his check from Google for the referrals.

Facebook’s clicd-fraud is different because it is not a referall program. People or businesses place the adds through Facebook directly (or through a bulk-buyer who gets paid for sales conversions). Because the businesses pay Facebook for every click of an ad but don’t bring in revenue unless a sale is made, they have no interest in artificially inflating number of clicks.

So who benefits from Facebook click-fraud? Competitors. A not-so-ethical business can inflate their competitors costs to the point that online advertising is harmful to the business. And that seems to be exactly what is happening according to Tech Crunch.

Facebook and Google and other cost per click advertising providers have problems. Both methods of click fraud discourage ad sales. The tools to perform click fraud are technology based. As Tech Crunch points out, the fight against click fraud is an arms race. When an ad provider figures how how to stop it, the scammers will find another way to do it. As long as web based advertising is based on cost per click, scammers have all the incentive they need to continue doing it.

Any business that buys cost per click advertising  on social networks as part of its social media strategy must also figure into their costs the additional resources required to check the charges coming from the social networks compared to the actual traffic they get on their own web site.

Now I have zero interest in security cameras. A Twitter account devoted entirely to offering to sell me security cameras has even less than zero interest for me; that is to say, I am actually repelled by this Twitter feed. If I found myself in the market to buy security cameras, I would intentionally avoid this user’s store. So our salesman is dead in the water in trying to get my attention.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say that I had a secret passion for security cameras. There is still absolutely nothing useful for me in his posts. Remember, social media is about relationships. Security-camera-guy did nothing but offer to sell me cameras. He did not providing me any useful or even remotely interesting content. Not only that, he only made posts from late April until mid-May. That alone tells you a lot about his motives. He was not trying to engage people to form relationships that could result in long-term, mutual benefits. He was trying to get me to follow his feed so I could see his offers and maybe bite on one. He wanted me to buy his cameras and had no interest in anything else. What do you bet that if I had bought some cameras I would then be dead to him?

Security camera guy made a number of mistakes in his social marketing strategy.

1. He did not understand his market. Now I’m no security camera expert, but even I know that security cameras are not a consumer market item. Business and government entities are where the sales are. Twitter is not the place to make contacts for those markets. His time was wasted in trying to sell in the consumer niche – the smallest market for his product.

2. He did not understand social networks. This error went beyond Twitter and applies to all social networks. Security-camera-guy did not re-tweet or reply to anyone. All of his posts were one-way, “let-me-sell-you-something” dispatches. Security-camera-guy did not understand that social networks are about building relationships, not sales. People do not want to follow someone who is only going to spam them with sales offers. Relationships in social networks are built by sharing useful content. Useful can mean entertaining, educational, or even news worthy. Trying to convince me that you have something to sell me is not useful.

The sad part is, security-camera-guy does have useful content to share. Because I’m critiquing his social marketing strategy, I thought I should check out his web site. Of course it is dominated by more offers to sell me security cameras but I did find a section that gave security tips. These tips could be great content. Security-camera-guy would have been better served if he shared his expertise in security instead of just putting out his desire to sell cameras. A reputation as someone who understands security would be much more credible than someone who shows he only wants to sell me cameras.

3. He was not in it for the long-term. His short time of posting confirms his motive. Twitter hype says it is supposed to be the hot, new marketing tool. He probably hoped he would jump on Twitter and start raking in the sales. It seems obvious that his 15 tweets over 3 weeks did not gain him much business so he stopped and is likely looking for the next easy marketing ploy.

If you want to use social networking tools to market, know why you are using them. Is your target market on those networks? How are you going to form relationships with those people? It takes time to form relationships; are you in it for the long-term?

Security-camera-guy reminds me of the guy who hands out his business card at networking meetings but does not bother to learn anything about the other attendees. He is only interested in how other people can benefit him, not in building a mutually-beneficial relationship. Don’t be that guy in your social marketing strategy.

Maybe.

Twitter is getting the most attention in social media at the moment and it is seeing huge growth since A-list celebrities like Oprah have jumped on the bandwagon. But Twitter isn’t for everyone and definitely not all business enterprises. Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet has the proper perspective regarding online marketing and Twitter.

“Twitter is not the end-all, be all of social media. It’s not even the start and it doesn’t even matter to some companies. And an agency using a social networking tool is all well and good, but it does not indicate any above average understanding of social media.”

Some companies are using Twitter to great effect. The Zappos Twitter account has over 640,000 followers. Yet, the success of Zappos came before its Twitter account. Zappos was well established for its outstanding customer service, concern for employees, and empathy with customers before Twitter gained any significant noteriety. The company culture embraced the openness of social media before Twitter grew to what it is now; Zappos created their own YouTube section in March of 2006. The Zappos Twitter feed fits in with its pre-existing social media strategy. Twitter is part of a social media strategy, not the focal point.

At the same time, a large part of Zappos’ success on Twitter is that CEO Tony Hsieh personally updates the account. The content on the feed is Hsieh’s personal thoughts. He has tweeted about conversations, people he has met, and trips he is planning or on. None of this is directly Zappos related. The benefit is that Zappos is making a personal connection with followers. The negative is, that connection is with Tony Hsieh. What would happen to all that goodwill if Hsieh resigned tomorrow or, worse, got arrested on felony charges?

Businesses need to clearly define their reasons for using Twitter by asking questions such as, how does a Twitter presence fit in with their goals? Are they going to mix corporate and personal content? What are the benefits? Can we live with the negatives? Do we have the commitment to update Twitter regularly? How will our content be valuable to our followers?

Most important for businesses is this tidbit from Jamie Harrop:

3. Treat Twitter Like a Party, Not a Show and Tell

Much like how at a party it would be classed as rude to walk up to every person and throw them a business card, it’s rude to show off your blog address on a regular basis in front of people you haven’t built a relationship with.

Parties and networking events are not meant to produce instant results, but rather meant to aid in the building of new relationships to ensure there is a return in the far future. Whether that return is a new customer for your business, or, possibly in Twitter’s case, a visit to your Web site, the relationship should be built first and done so over an extended period.

Don’t expect quick results from Twitter. You must build solid, honest relationships first.

So true. Social media is about relationships, not businesses. Business can be successful on Twitter but they must build relationships to do it.