“We use Twitter, Blogging, Facebook and Email Marketing”, said Andrew the Managing Director of an online travel firm. But under scrutiny Andrew didn’t know what to expect from using these tools. He just knew he wanted more orders. His strategy for getting more orders was to shout loudly until someone listened.

On closer inspection the Twitter account was following 1986 people and had 33 followers. Out of the 33 followers, 7 were spam, the rest contra-following from organisations that were sympathetic to the travel company but never likely to purchase anything from them. The travel company insisted on tweeting a new offer every day. They treated their Twitter channel as an advertising channel.

The Facebook fan page has employees and family as readers and again contained a sequence of ads for holidays and short breaks. The email list had nearly 100,000 email addresses but rarely achieved open rates in excess of 3% with purchases often equating to zero.

Andrew wanted to grow his Twitter following, Facebook fan base and rent new email marketing lists believing that his sales funnel would grow. Needless to say that this growth tactic would just annoy more people and not increase orders. The problem wasn’t the size of his audience; it was how Andrew’s company engaged with them.

Having a hammer doesn’t make you a carpenter nor does having a paintbrush make you an artist. The problem in Andrew’s case is not the tool set he uses nor is it the force he is applying. The problem stems from a lack of understanding the art and craft of how to use the tools. From experience I find that most organisations start with the tools before they ever ask the question if anyone is skilled enough to use them. Sometimes the tools fall into naturally skilled individuals’ hands, most times they don’t.

Give me tools...more tools!