Besides growing revenue most businesses have a handful of marketing goals, and some of them distract from growing the bottom line. One of the more common goals is to gain prestige. When described, “prestige” is often, getting lots of social followers, winning awards, highbrow media mentions – what the kids may call “doing the work.” Basically clout chasing. This kind of soft concept can gum up the works of marketing. It’s validating to have lots of followers, press coverage, and awards; these things, however, are not as important as gaining new customers. And while many business people believe getting enough clout will be effective marketing, it’s often not. Dopamine Isn’t Money As a general rule, social buzz, awards and press are positive. But chasing the dopamine of millions of social followers, an industry award, or an impressive media mention is probably a diversion from building a strong offering and making the cash register ring. Think of it this way. Would it be cool to have a million followers on social media? Yes. Would being featured in The Economist impress even the most pretentious people? Indubitably. Will either of those things create revenue for a business? Not necessarily in isolation. Social Media is Not Real Life I first wrote about finding ROI in social media back in 2014, and even then, I was critical of focusing a lot of effort into growing followers. Social media has a place in marketing, and even follower growth is worth some focus, but it has to fit…Being A Clout Chaser Is Not A Marketing Strategy