A few months ago I wrote a post outlining 5 brands succeeding despite not being actively involved (whatever that means) in social media. One of the brands I listed was Apple. They’ve completely shunned social media. No twitter, no Facebook, no special Apple Mobile Me only social network. Nope, none of it. And you know where it’s gotten them? An amazingly stable stock price, 26 billion in cash from consumers, and a market cap of 151 billion.
Microsoft (who I love) would kill for this type of performance. With all that in mind, I had to laugh when I read this article by Tom Foremski at ZDNET. In the article Tom, bemoans the lack of participation by Apple in the social space and makes the assumption that their lack of participation must be a Steve Jobs directive. Of course he covers the whole Apple needs to be listening and showing people care by “engaging” and “participating.” My favorite quote is:
The other thing people will remember is when you show you aren’t listening, you aren’t interested, you come across as arrogant. You have $26 billion in cash earned from your customers and you don’t care about your customers, what they are saying about you, what problems they are having. That’s memorable.
Is that what you want? Is that the message you are striving to communicate? If that’s the case you are succeeding incredibly well.
As usual, social media evangelists and fans are missing the point. It’s not about relationships, conversations, or engagement – no, it’s about money. Ironically, Tom, quotes the most important metric, but completely misses the impact. $26 billion. That’s right $26 billion. When you’re results are $26 billion and increased share across phones, mp3 players, and computers that’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing by any means.
Clearly, what Apple is doing is working from financial, marketing, and business stand points. Apple, as much as I loathe them (and I’m typing on a 15″ MacBook Pro while looking at my iPhone) has been very successful without social media. To that I say bravo. Perhaps other companies will look at Apple and realize you don’t need social media to succeed…well not everyone does…most don’t. You get my point.
Interactive marketer, innovator, boat rocker, continuous learner, movie lover, risk taker, dad and all around good guy. I'm always up for a spirited conversation. These are my thoughts and ramblings, not those of my employer.
My add– I would agree that Apple doesn't need social media- now. They mnake cool products, and people buy them- for years, they have not been disappointed.
However, Apple risks long-term harm by not building up public goodwill. All they need is another Newton (or three) to squander public trust. If their stuff stops being cool, they will have no karma capital to float them until they get cool again. And with Steve Jobs' exit looming (sometime, who knows when), there will come a time when they won't be able to count on him walking back through that door.
My add– I would agree that Apple doesn't need social media- now. They mnake cool products, and people buy them- for years, they have not been disappointed.
However, Apple risks long-term harm by not building up public goodwill. All they need is another Newton (or three) to squander public trust. If their stuff stops being cool, they will have no karma capital to float them until they get cool again. And with Steve Jobs' exit looming (sometime, who knows when), there will come a time when they won't be able to count on him walking back through that door.