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Scary social media mistakes: Are you the Avon lady?

Posted by Lisa Hoffmann in Blogging, Marketing, Online networking, Personal branding, Social media, Twitter on 11 3rd, 2008 | Comments

Note: If you already know this stuff, please be on the lookout for someone who needs to see this and forward the link to them. Someone like the guy Mack Collier called out yesterday. Bless his heart. He’s like the Avon lady who solicited my mom on Halloween night.

Mom opened the door to a pretty little ballerina and a pig-tailed UPS delivery girl. “Trick-or-treat!” they said shyly, as their mom watched from the street. As Mom offered them some goodies, the ballerina slipped an Avon book into her hand.

Mom thanked the girls, cheerfully wished them a happy Halloween, waved to their mom, closed the door and promptly threw the Avon book away. Mom’s a nurse. She doesn’t know anything about marketing. But she was clear on how she felt about this lady’s approach.

“She didn’t even introduce herself,” she said. “Just had her daughter hand me the catalog. I’ve never met her.”

Poor Avon lady. Probably has no idea she’s turning people off.

If you flit from site to site, leaving comments that are nothing more than sales pitches or links, if you blurt on twitter instead of joining the conversation, if the first email or direct message people get from you is a link to your sales site, you are making some scary social media mistakes.

And they’ll come back to haunt you.

Photo credit: five_eyes via Flickr

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Comments to “ Scary social media mistakes: Are you the Avon lady? ”

katbron says:

November 3, 2008 at 11:39 am

Good information Lisa. I've not experienced this Avon Lady approach, but it is about as tactical as the women who have approached me while I grocery shop, underwear shop or even at my doctor's office with the line “has anyone ever told you how pretty you are?” While caught up in the flatter, they suddenly descend into a Mary Kay sales pitch. Embarrassed that I was sucked in by the compliment and annoyed at the approach. I quickly say I'm allergic and disappear, feeling somewhat violated. I've had that same feeling when approached by solicitors on Twitter. Wanting new friends initially, I quickly realized the mutually-beneficial relationships are far more satisfying.

Virginia says:

November 3, 2008 at 11:55 am

Lisa,
Thank you for highlighting an increasingly common error. In this era of instantaneous communication, some people forget that information needs to flow both ways to be considered a “conversation”.Simply blurting or broadcasting isn't enough to interest people. In fact, it seems to have the opposite effect.

If I have learned anything delving into these Web2.0 spaces; it is that no one likes a loudmouth, and if you have nothing but noise to offer, best keep it to yourself. Instead, join the conversation, or simply listen and take to heart what others are so generously offering for free! Bring something of value to the process and you will receive value in return.
I follow you on Twitter, and I think you exemplify this idea with both your Tweets and blogs. Cheers!

heatherrast says:

November 3, 2008 at 9:27 pm

What a great job you did at making your point easily, quickly, and with clarity. Your story crystalizes an important marketing tenet, which stems from the brand (in this case, personal brand)–there has to be trust for a relationship to exist. The Avon lady wasn't known, and therefore wasn't yet trusted. But her tactic presumed a relationship before it could even germinate. I venture to say, had she accompanied her children to the door, waited patiently for them to receive acknowledgement & goodies, then mentioned she had hoped to make a few new contacts with all of her extra walking that night, would you be interested in a catalog? I'll bet that approach would at least have bought her a quick skim during the morning cereal and coffee.

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire! » The Buzz Bin says:

November 4, 2008 at 2:36 pm

[...] Hoffmann provides an example of why developing relationships is so important in business. Lisa says, “If you flit from site to site, leaving comments that are nothing more than sales [...]

Eric Brown says:

November 4, 2008 at 4:59 pm

Hi Lisa,
We certainly live in an environment today that is Permission Based Marketing, to use Seth's phrase. But based on your story, your Mom would have always felt that way, and so sometimes I think we have just come full circle.

Kyle Lacy says:

November 7, 2008 at 7:55 am

Great post Lisa. You are reaching pretty low when the form of interruption marketing you are using… is interrupting a candy hand off. Personality rules in small business, whether you are in the vanity business or not.

tom martin says:

November 10, 2008 at 11:55 pm

Please tell me you made this up. That has to be about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of a person doing. Hope you don't mind, reposted with props to you on my blog http://www.tommartin.typepad.com. Just too funny not to share.

Andee Sellman, One Sherpa says:

November 20, 2008 at 8:26 pm

Hi Lisa,
A friend sent me a link to this post for which I’m really grateful.
It is a timely reminder for us to respect people and earn the right to make an offer to them rather than simply pushing ahead
I know that sometimes when I’m so focussed on my world I forget to think from the other person’s point of view. Respect is so hard to build up it is critical to get off on the right foot in the first place.

Joi says:

November 21, 2008 at 3:38 pm

I’m pretty sure Avon would be as disgusted with this lady’s approach as the rest of us. She’s giving them a black eye by using her child to do her deeds.

I have to say, though, I LOVE your mom’s response. To NOT take the brochure would have been awkward for the little girl – on a night that should have been entirely about her fun, not mom’s marketing.

Pam says:

December 4, 2008 at 9:39 pm

I don’t like when people use (exploit) their cute children for marketing themselves… one local guy has had ads on tv with first his very young babies and now toddlers promoting his financial services business… I find it very off-putting and does nothing to make me think of him as a professional in that field. I guess it must work for him since he’s been doing it for years and it can’t be cheap. There are just times when I personally don’t think children should be used to sell adult things…when there’s no logical connection. But many people are lured in by the cuteness factor unfortunately. This Avon lady probably thought that surely no one would say “no” to a catalog from her cute little girl… she’d get a foot in the door that way. It would have come off better if she’d accompanied her daughter to the door and given the catalog out herself, though really she should have done that on “her own time” so to speak. But I’m sure she may have found some level of success with it even though she turned many off with it.

PRstore Blog » “I Can’t Do That!” Marketing Ideas for 2009 says:

December 30, 2008 at 2:58 pm

[...] word of caution: Please don’t be the Avon lady. Save your sales pitch for the trade show. Social media is about listening, understanding your [...]