I won’t. Really I won’t. Hard work, time and ethical marketing will. So please think twice before you sign up for a webinar that is going to tell you that your huge email marketing list means that you’re loved. Here’s my story.
I’ve been on a few webinars in my time – and I attended not so long ago from 9.30 am to 11.45 am on the topic of growing your social media following. That’s two and three-quarter hours. What does that relate to in terms of your fees?
The first twenty minutes were spent with the presenter giving me his credentials, however, having aleady paid there really was no need to tell me how great he was. The last 20 minutes were spent selling me the next course for, I think, £150. So that’s 40 minutes of my time where value wasn’t really added. The entire way through the webinar, the host kept on referring to how little time we had and how he couldn’t go into detail but spent extended amounts of time explaining one simple point.
If he had stopped over-elaborating, massaging his ego and trying to sell to those who had already bought, he would have had an extra 40 minutes, that’s 40 minutes of time to share valuable information. Ethical? No, he had my details and could sell outside of the time I had purchased.
The webinar was supposed to be live. It may have been, I have no way of knowing, however I was not able to participate as I would have liked. The comment box that was supposed to be at the bottom of my screen was not visible, so I couldn’t comment or respond to questions, or enter the competition that allegedly happened. I emailed the host during the webinar to advise of this and had a response from someone else to say that it wouldn’t matter – and enjoy the show! Ethical? Probably, but let me have my head here.
I expected to know most of the content that the webinar shared, and that’s ok, – it’s alwasy good to have a refresh and for those who don’t use social media regularly, there would have been some very useful information within.
But if you are not a social media aficionado, if you do not have the time to manage your social media for something other than a quick burst, these courses will not gain you thousands of followers, or sell £s worth of products as they purport to. And this is my issue.
Before you sign up to any of these courses (even the free ones), have an idea of how you want to use social media for your business already in your mind. The free and lower-priced courses are selling tools and whilst that is absolutely fine in essence, I struggle with this from an ethical marketing perspective.
Social media will not work if you don’t invest time in it. So, the first question you should be asked when being sold these webinars is not “do you want to grow your email list by 100 emails per day?”, but “Do you have time to grow your business through social media? If so, this is for you.”
Ethical marketing means adding value. And to add value, you need to understand your target audience.
Social Media will not grow your email lists, make you a millionaire or make our clients love you or your firm. Your time and understanding will.
