Is social media marketing in Singapore dead?

P&G Global Brand Building Officer Marc Pritchard declared last year that digital marketing was dead but I think he missed the point. Actually digital marketing is very much alive. It's mobile marketing and social marketing that are actually dead in Singapore.

Declaring that digital marketing is dead is like saying that outdoor advertising is dead. Or PR is dead. They’re all very different disciplines that entwine and complement each other but digital marketing as a discipline is still growing and being learnt by so many marketers that to declare it dead is jumping the smoking gun.

Marketers in Singapore get digital marketing all confused and say daft things like:

-          I need a facebook page – why?

-          I need an app - why?

-          I need banner campaign – why?

Marketers are great at climbing on board bandwagons. Less good at getting off when they’re about to go over a cliff. Apps are great case in point. If I had a dollar for every client/potential client that said “I need an app” and when asked why said “I don’t know…. because my competitors have all got one”. So if all your competitors decided to sponsor underwater volleyball using dwarves as the ball, would you do the same?

Simple questions should kill any thought for an unnecessary app. Like who is going to download it and what are they going to download it for? What budget are you allocating towards it? How will you ensure it has relevant content to ensure people come back on a daily/weekly basis and how will you integrate it into your IT systems? How much $ will you allocate to its marketing?

Also when it comes to budgets you can have an app for $5k or $500k and in Asia you really do get what you pay for but will your company justify $500k when you have no idea how many people will download and use it on a regular basis and even if yours is the kind of company that is a daily/weekly company. If you then spend $5k and it breaks down and no one users will you dismiss the concept completely?

Let me give you a clue, if you’re a Singaporean furniture company, car company, plane selling company, FMCG company or B2B company, the chances are that in general you don’t need an app because no one is going to use it on a regular basis and it won’t do any more than a mobile enabled website combined with email will do.

However if you’re a Singaporean financial services brand, telecomm, media brand, sports brand, general travel brand (not once in a lifetime travel brand) or dynamic content brand as well as social media brand, then yes you need an app. Anyone could make a commercial case for the latter examples and similarly one not to progress with the former ones.

The same goes for a facebook page. Just because everyone else in Singapore has one does not mean it makes sense for you to have one. For example if you’re a B2B brand, you do not need a facebook page unless you want millions of off-target consumers who will never be interested in actually buying your brand or even could make a difference to your brand following you. If you do want that, then you need to change industries and probably jobs.

I’m always amazed when I say to potential clients no you should not need a facebook page and app and they look at me and say we’ll pay you. I always say you’re missing the point, you don’t have daily interesting content, you don’t have any reason why someone would download your app or follow you, so what are you expecting from these? What is your ROI?

I know marketers are not known for their adherence to ROI. They can place a 30 second TV ad or run a poster campaign worth millions of dollars and who knows what effect it has as you can’t track it but digital marketing measures everything. You will be accountable for your spend, at least I hope that your CFO makes you accountable for it.

If you spend $1m on a year’s worth of app development and facebook page development and end up with a few thousand followers none of which are engaging on either platform, what will you say? More importantly what will your boss and shareholders say? How about what a waste of money and here’s the door?

Okay, so it might be over the top to say that Mobile and Social are dead when in fact the whole digital industry is growing and will continue to do so. The point is don't start your planning by thinking about platforms. Start by thinking about your customers and your competitive environment. From there you will get great insights that will lead to great ideas that will naturally lead you to the right platforms. Not the other way around.

Don’t be a lemming and follow individual digital marketing trends like social or apps and think about how your customers will engage, who they are, how you will target them, how do you want them to talk to you and ultimately ask yourself what difference will it mean to your business if you have them and what difference will it make if you don’t.

Think, don’t leap and you will be alive and kicking like digital marketing is rather than being put out of your misery like social and mobile are.