Be A Person
May 27, 2009
I was doing some research and the best summary of what I was thinking this morning what to advise in social media is…
Be A Person.
Jon Stewart said it best – video has some words objectionable to some (PG-13). I’ll leave today’s post at that.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Be a Person – Dealer or No Dealer | ||||
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“It’s The Relationship, Stupid.”
May 24, 2009
A common thing we run across is “messaging” with social media. Meetings, consternation, and time spent – valuable, and can be productive time, thinking about what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say/communicate it. But then the other half of the loop isn’t closed and folks wonder why they’re not successful.
You can have a very effective message – but you can still snap defeat from the jaws of victory in social media because the conversation is just as important, if not more so, than the message.
The street is two-way; leaving comments languish for a long time, not responding to them, or even not thinking about your message in a way that your readership does.
There’s a couple of thoughts or best practices (I don’t like “rules” word) that we’ve seen.
1) Make sure your content is good. Write with people you respect in mind. Would they appreciate it? Would they find it valuable? Is there a real takeaway? Is it not a pitch?
2) When there’s conversation, engage it. If you moderate comments, act quickly on approval. If you have someone ask questions or make good points, talk it out. That’s what is key to building that loyal following that will spread a message. There’s a saying that “It’s the Economy, stupid,” but in social media, “It’s the relationship, stupid.”
3) People don’t generally fall in love with brands, they fall in love with people. Almost every successful engagement we’ve had has been built around positive personal stories. As a for instance, Oprah doesn’t look for brands, she looks for life-changing stories of people. In short, an emotional “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM). You can build a brand that people love, but the personal story is a much more effective route. And after all – the brands that people love are made up and have proponents that tell…. their personal story. So either way, it’s about the people.
This is a hard one for folks to wrap their head around, especially if their experience is in the one-way world of press releases and advertising… if not outright frightening. But that change is here.
A wise advertising mentor of mine from a top flight national agency taught me that the only constant is change and to cautiously embrace it as it comes to stay ahead. That advice has served me well the past ten years.
Photo Credit Brian Ambrozy, @primesuspect and Icrontian.Multichannel Social Media Overload And The Hard Truth
May 5, 2009
First, read this on how social media really works.
Back? Okay. Taken a Tums if you’re a shill? Good. Hope you feel better now.
I preface my post with that link because I think there’s a cadre of people who need to calm the &^*$ down and stop the noise. It’s not the number of Twitter status updates that’s going to get your company or product noticed. It’s if your product/service rocks and is compelling, and then being willing to be part (not try to own) the conversation.
The Hard Truth
There’s quite a few people now – in fact, the majority in number but not in weight of so-called experts – who are going down this path of being constant interference. Whether it’s constantly 8 or 10 Tweets in a row, or the only Facebook status updates someone does are “come to my seminar and you’ll be *insert betterment here*” it’s just too much.
I fully believe those folks that turn up the pitch level are sacrificing making something great… something that they’re passionate about – for a get-rich scheme, or a multi-level marketing pyramid. People are generally afraid to be themselves, and feel like this is some sort of pitch arena. Like Facebook was made for people to stuff their sales down your throat, and it wasn’t. It was meant to connect people, and hold people together.
Let’s remember that the next time (whomever you are) hits the tweet or status button four times in a row for your *insert betterment here* package. And remember this is a community, and what normally happens to the guy who goes door to door in your community? Uh huh. Unless you’ve converted to four religions in the past five years and bought two sets of Encyclopedia Britannicas, you’ve probably ignored them.
Even Though You Didn’t Tell Me, I Know You Faked It
The other side of this issue is the passion equation. Is it your true passion – or is it just your job? You can tell the people who are on social media to be on it – they figure they HAVE to be. There’s a great post by Stacy Lukas (Her snark/sass is on Twitter too) that touches on this.
For the “jobbers,” who do the Holy Trinity and say their social media Hail Marys, you can see the lack of passion, the weaving of the press release, into their posts. They live in the shadow of the real deal, attempting to fill niches already filled.
It’s not a part of their life, it’s a check box ticked.
So the next time you put together something for social media – think about if you’re being authentic, if you’re doing it right.
I leave you with a thought from Merlin Mann:
Zappos is on Twitter, but they also put millions of dollars on awesome service before then. Having a twitter account does not make you Zappos. Having the resources to serve your audience makes you Zappos. Registering and responding to an email does not make you Zappos.
p.s. – Yep, just looked at the posts, this is officially the start of my fourth year on this blog. More on that next time. But thank you all.
