Let’s examine the correlation between success and social media presence for big companies. Is it possible to be a successful marketer without relying on social media?

Business contact list company Netprospex recently released a report on social media which included the 100 most social companies.

The list was determined by these two criteria:

1. Social presence: The number of employees registered with social media profiles across Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook using a corporate email address.

2. Social connectedness: The number of connections across social networks.

The New York Times topped the list, with a score of 150. How’s the newspaper business doing?

Intuit — makers of Quickbooks and Quicken — was second.

Adobe, maker of Photoshop, was in fourth position.

Amazon.com — which, I’d argue is more successful than all of the above — came in sixth, with a score of 109. That’s 27 percent less socially engaged than the New York Times, but many times the profit of the Times.

Microsoft was ninth on the list, Best Buy was 11th. Both companies are struggling to connect with consumers, but are very active on social media.

What about Apple, the most successful consumer company on the planet? Where did it come in? Apple was down the list, in 15th place, with a score of 84, nearly 50 percent less social than the leader, and about 40 percent less social than Intuit.

How did Harley-Davidson do? The company that inspires (admittedly, somewhat older) customers to tattoo its logo onto their skin, was in position 80 out of 100 on the list of most social companies. I’d say Harley is a pretty successful marketer.

My point is that social media is not required for consumer marketing success. Social media is not even required to develop customer evangelists.

Sure, it can have a place in your marketing arsenal. But it should not be the focus. No, it cannot be the focus, because if it is, companies tend to lose sight of much more important marketing work.

What should be the main focus of your marketing?

First, creating an excellent product or service. Success begins there.

Once you have that, you need deep consumer insights. You must know what your customers want, expect, and think. How do they talk about your product? What words do they use?

Next, these insights should be converted into simple, powerful language. It should be non-technical. In fact, the first 80 percent of your message should focus on lifestyle and emotion. The final 20 percent can get technical and go into specifications.

Finally, this message is to be communicated relentlessly from a variety of platforms, one of which can be social media. 

See how late in the process social media comes in?

And judging from the research of Netprospex, not only is it possible to be successful without social media, but the most successful consumer companies don’t rely on social media!

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