There was a significant kerfuffle last week as General Motors' pulled their advertising from Facebook, with prognosticators pointing to the failure of Facebook as a marketing tools. Having been recently in the market for a new car, and having bought a GM car in the end, I can say with certainty that GM's use of Facebook advertising really sucked. And Ford's was much better.

Once I started online research for my car I started noticing ads for car manufacturers popping up on FB. I noticed that GM ads were pretty standard. Essentially, they said, "buy our car." I was not impressed. Then there was this one ad I found that didn't even mention who it was from. It was a link to an article about the raw materials that go into electric vehicles. I was considering EVs so I clicked on it. It took me to a another manufacturers site, but not an ad. it was actually an article about the raw materials used in EVs. And that gave me and opportunity to go check the specs of an EV for that manufacturer.

The bottom line was I was engaged in what the other manufacturer offered as content and I considered their offering for an EV. Now, in the end, I chose a GM car because of other reasons, but I was not helped by what GM tried to sell me through Facebook.

That's the issue with social media. Using it like a typical advertising platform will end in failure. Using it as a promotional tool alone will end in failure. Offering real content that helps people make a decision succeeds.

If your social platform is not delivering results for you, don't blame the platform. Get someone in with some perspective and look at your content