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Somebody told me this afternoon that he saw no value in our social analytics tool.
And you know what? I completely agreed.
We messed up because we didn’t care to ask him what his goals were. So the fact that we have a couple hundred metrics across Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other sources– it meant nothing to him.
We could have continued to parade every variety of bar chart and pie chart in whatever color, sliced by date, his own page, his competitors’ pages, whatever.
It would be a meaningless exercise.
You see, people buy solutions to their problems, not software per se.
I happen to own about 2,500 books. It’s not because I love books– it’s that I am interested in learning about a variety of subjects.
You buy a hammer and nail because you’re trying to solve a problem, not because you like nails.
So when you’re building software, demoing your services, or trying to get a customer to use your product, always consider their goals, not yours.
And that’s why our software sucks.
It’s an enhanced map to help you get where you want to go.
But if you don’t know where you want to go, any direction is as good as any other.
DON’T BE A TOOL
For the rest of us, there is no substitute for thinking.
Don’t worry, the machines aren’t about to replace us any time soon.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.