Skip to main content

Analysis Paralysis

There are steps to success at Internet marketing. First, you have to want to succeed. Second, you have to learn what to do, learn the rules of the game, and third, you have to actually "do it." It's like baking a cake: reading about it in a cookbook isn't enough, you actually have to break some eggs, throw in some flour, and butter and cook the thing.


Analysis Paralysis
Which leads us to analysis paralysis. This is one of the diseases of marketing that afflicts companies big and small, but seems to strike with more virulence at the larger companies. If one is a small business, and two a partnership, then three or more is an endless corporate meeting at which everything gets discussed, and nothing gets done.


Signs of Analysis Paralysis (SEO)


In search engine optimization, these would include:



  • Inability to decide on target keywords - you know you need keywords, but you just can't agree on what they are, so your team goes round and round and round with lists and lists and lists of keywords, but never a prioritized list.
  • Inability to change the website. Now that you know those keywords, you need to implement on the website: changing TITLE tags, META DESCRIPTION tags, and of course web content. But you can't because you, the content team, the web team and every other team can't agree on how the website should look or feel.
  • Metrics ad infinitum. You start some changes, but the boss wants hard and firm metrics about everything - which isn't available, or possible, and absent firm metrics... inertia / no decision is made.
Similarly with all the other aspects of SEO such as link-building. Your company decides it's "too hard" and so you never actually do it. You know you should, but you just don't get started.

Signs of Analysis Paralysis (Social Media Marketing)


In social media, the hallmarks of analysis paralysis are things like knowing your company needs a Facebook page, but inability to agree on what it should look like; or knowing you really should claim and set up your Yelp listing, but inability to actually go claim it, and optimize it. Or fear. Fear is a big one in social media.

Your company realizes that you can't "control" what people might say on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and so determines it is better to just stay out of this for now, not realizing that the conversation goes on with or without you.

In sum, analysis paralysis is the affliction of knowing you should do something about SEO, about Social Media, about Internet Marketing... but an inability to actually DO IT.

Go break some eggs!

Share this post - http://bit.ly/1jp5y3P 

Comments

  1. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. I hope you post again soon. Big thanks for the useful info. social media smm panel

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quality Issues on Social Media Marketing Workbook?

Grrrrrrrrrr.  Amazon is reporting "quality issues" on my Social Media Marketing workbook . But, oops - there are NONE.  I've called in to complain and get them to remove that annoying "warning" but so far, nothing. Oh readers.  Those fun folks who have trouble with their Kindle and blame it on us poor and struggling authors. #OHWELL.  Always, contact me if you have issues with the books. I'll move heaven, earth, and Amazon to fix it.

Conflation: To Blend or Confuse (Perhaps with the Purpose of Misleading Someone)

There's inflation (to get bigger) and conflation (to bring together). You may have heard people say something like "she's muddying the waters," evoking the idea of someone stirring up the dirt so you can't tell where the water begins and the dirt ends. Or two rivers coming together like the mighty Rio Solimoes (the Amazon) and the Rio Negro. In arguments, conflation is used when you try to point out to your opponent (or audience) that the thinker is taking one thing and confusing it or muddling it up with another. An example might be something like: Hitler was a terrible person. He was really immoral. Hitler believed that the world was round. The world can't be round, because Hitler was immoral. Oops, you're conflating Hitler's moral character (or lack thereof), with a statement of truth or falsehood ; whether the world is flat or not. We're conflating two separate logical concepts. The world either is, or is not flat, independent of H