Welcome to Week 1 of READY2SPARK’s ‘Social Media Starter Kit’. As a brand strategist and a sales & marketing consultant, it’s my responsibility to ensure that my clients are making the right decisions for their business and standing apart from the crowd. This series will be dedicated to getting smart about social media.
But first let me tell you a short story…
A number of years ago I was working on a brand design project for a line of weight loss products. To better understand the industry, I flew out to Ohio, where a weight loss conference was taking place. While in town I decided to fit in a few trips to local Walmart stores so I could see how customers shopped the category. Pretending to be engrossed by the various bottles of weight loss elixirs, I lurked the aisle to see who was buying and what products caught their attention. One extremely overweight couple, carts overflowing with chips, pop and other packaged goods (made from ingredients I can’t pronounce), made their way down the aisle. They stopped in front of the diet pills and proceeded to debate which one to put in their cart. Aaah, the quest for the silver bullet. Forget about the proven solution (good diet + exercise). It’s human nature to try and find the quickest route to our end destination.
So, why did I tell this story?
Because we see the same problem in Social Media. There are a tonne of companies who believe that the silver bullet answer to creating thousands of friends, followers and prospects is to have a Facebook page, Twitter account or blog. Like magic, potential-customers will flock to these sites to listen to Company XYZ pontificate about how great they are. “We just launched our new blog!”, “We just won an award!”, “We just signed a new client!”, blah, blah, blah. Listen to what we’ve done, look at what we’ve seen, oh enough about us…what do you think about us? Here’s the problem with this silver bullet theory: People are time starved and information overloaded. If they feel that you’re wasting their time by providing information that’s not relevant or meaningful to them, they’ll say good-bye. And that, my friends, is the beauty of social media. Unlike TV ads, magazine ads and radio ads, they’re not forced to listen to your message. If they don’t like what they hear they’ll dismiss you without a second thought. Add to this challenge that unlike traditional media, ‘He who has the deepest pockets’ doesn’t win. After all, social media is free. This means that you have more competition than ever before. To cut through the clutter, simply participating isn’t enough…you have to be clever.
So for now, I’ll leave you with these thoughts & welcome your feedback. If there are any topics you’d like to hear about, please contact me and let me know.
Until next week!
[On READY2SPARK] Week 1 . Why social media is not a silver bullet? – http://www.ready2spark.com/2010/04/week-… #eventprofs
@ready2spark I am jealous of your Asia Trip. Take Notes on the Experiential Marketing Class by @maxlenderman
Clever participation. Interesting way of putting it Lara. Simply participating isn't enough and social currency can't be measured in followers/fans or dollars (at least at first). I look forward to the next in the series of posts. Thank you for continuing to contribute
Really enjoyed your post. Particularly like your comments about how companies can forget that it is not about them but all about their client and what the client needs. Looking forward to your future posts.
Thanks, Paul. You've extracted the exact post I'm going to build the next article around 🙂
Just popped over to your site. Would love to learn more about it.
Cheers!
Kevin, thank you so much for your thoughts! I struggled a bit with the word clever, because often it's associated with slick & sly – but to me it sums up ingenuity and suggest forethought. Unfortunately I think it's the forethought that's missing from a lot of social media activities online. I look forward to more of your insights.