Feb 28 2010
Social media; does my business really need to socialize?
You do not really ‘need’ to socialize, you could very well be wasting your time (if you’re not willing to commit to some simple social interaction) or you could be tapping into a set of tools more powerful than television and any print advertisement combined.
We have all heard the buzz, from Pepsi’s million dollar social media campaign to the 400 million users on Facebook, every business owner is at least ‘curious’ about this new media. Before I get into too much detail, you may want to note that to date there are 1000’s of web sites which could easily be called ‘social media’.
On that note, anyone proposing to be an “expert” on the subject is pulling your leg and trying to poke into your pocket, social media WEBSITES have only been around for about a decade, which is simply not enough time to study and create a field for a PhD or masters in it, YET... What you need is a consultant, or a marketing strategist with web campaign and SEO experience who admits they are not an expert in OSM yet, but honestly has experience developing a campaign which uses social media in it.
When did social media start?
“Probably about 7.34pm on a mild Tuesday in mid-April, around 165,000 BCE” (1*). The idea of social media is neither new nor novel; however, the idea of strategically using digital social media tools to do everything from demographic research to online marketing is young and quickly becoming old. The wolves are at the door and they are willing to take your money and line their own pockets based on this buzz word.
Understanding ‘what’ is more valuable than knowing where it came from. It is also for this reason the marketing reps can be as close as it comes to a self proclaimed ‘expert’ on the subject here in 2010 (and up to 2020 I imagine) if they have the right kind of ‘new media’ background.
Just what is social media?
Social media is a phenomenon if you will (than anything else), people gathered together to interact with each other through a common medium, simple as that. By that standard the walls which cave paintings are found on are social media. The real answer lies in the term “social media tools” and better yet, online social media “OSM”.
Consider that the whole point and attraction for people to use OSM is to connect with each other, NOT to be advertised to death (just take a look at what spam did to email).
So, what’s the point of a business using OSM?
The point of using OSM for a business purpose is not only to gain sales, but to invite interaction with your brand! The keyword here is “invite”; people are naturally resistant to advertising, and people who use OSM get ‘digitally violent’ when you spam their Facebook or LinkedIN account.
Keep this one golden rule in mind if you take out a OSM account for business purposes: there are places for business interaction and there are places for personal interaction, if you violate them expect retaliation, account deletion, and worse, a backfire of negative posting from the demographic you hoped to reach.
Intent is the key to any successful OSM efforts, and interaction is the hand that holds that key. Over the last 3 years I have had an influx of requests to ‘involve’ social media in both web strategy and web development. In the last year several of those campaigns have become successful where others fail miserably. The only way to effectively use social media for a company is to socialize, simple as that.
What are the dangers, are there any scammers?
You bet there are, and they are growing in numbers ready to line their pockets with your money and put you in the ‘emperors new cloths’. Some quick tips: Do not hire ‘paid accounts’, do not hire ‘paid bloggers’ to run those accounts, and do not pay for ‘links’ to those accounts or you will have created a mess which will cost more to clean up than you paid for your links, not to mention the time you wasted dreaming of rivers flowing with social gold.
You need a real person from your company to be that profile, or, a company profile which allows your page to act as a company. This is important; too many people are being ripped off and coned into the idea that you can hire someone to ‘run’ your OSM campaign FOR YOU who does not understand your company, you are much better off to get the right person to assist in strategically making and enhancing connections.
Never, ever, ever hire someone who says they can guarantee “x” number of posts, “x” number of hours holding conversations, or “x” number of connections, you can bet the farm that they are “talking to themselves” or a team of ‘them-self’ and calling it ‘confirmed conversation’ (LOL- it happens).
That’s great, but exactly how do I use OSM for my business?
Honestly, get in the trenches, take out an account and research it for yourself, you might just find that new OSM tool everyone is talking about is just for “people who own rabbits” and not “investors”.
Consider this; “putting a Lexus advertisement in a comic book might be a poor choice, hiring a marketing professional to point that out is worth its weight in gold when you realize your board simply looked at the distribution numbers of that publication and not the title nor the content”.
On that note a consultant and strategist can come in handy tuning up your marketing campaign. For example let’s look at a fake product “Ninja gum”, targeted at teens on Facebook. Below is a sample of what a slice of a proposal may look like from your OSM strategist.
sample shows basic OSM facebook strategy, image copyright Christian Zagarskas, 2010.
- Start with a main website to drive traffic to where you can actually order the product online.
- Create a REAL profile for your actual PR manager “Joe” on Facebook, go ahead, put him in a ninja suit for his photo but make sure not to violate the terms of facebook with a fake profile.
- Create a ‘company profile’ under ownership of “Joe”.
- Create a contest app on Facebook where the winner gets a case of “ninja gum” and an x-box, let them upload their favorite ninja joke and then really pick one (because that user is going to get you a ton of free exposure when you give him a profile badge for his page…)
- Start a cool fan group to join that says “I’m a fan of gum that turns you into a ninja”
- Set an advertising budget on FACEBOOK and pay for clicks which lead users to the FACEBOOK page and not another website. (sending visits to your website is SEM of course, and we can talk about that later…)
- DON’T LIE, DO NOT LIE, and DO NOT LIE USING FAKE PROFILES. Do not pay people to talk about your gum, do not pay companies to blog about your gum, do not pay people to be friends with your profiles, do not create fake profiles to add as friends to make yourself look bigger, and when you do get friends do not send them messages about your gum; they will likely leave you and then they will burn you to all their friends. Do not ask them for their address and phone number, do not ask them for their email, use their profile link to tell them if they win.
- Now, tie that into a few other OSM tools like MySpace or twitter and make sure that contestants can enter the contest on your website too.
- Sit back, and let the social phenomenon happen by accident.
- If you build it they might come.
When you decide to tap into OSM remember this simple concept: “How all human communication fails, except by accident” (or ‘wiio’s laws’ *3). To conclude, the most impressive use of Social media use I recently saw was not some fancy campaign with a bunch of bells and whistles, contests, funny stuff or tricks trying to get names and emails, it was simply a customer who showed a concern about service and the owner of the company himself responded publically in a post and offered to give a private showing of their product. Now that’s success and that’s someone who understands the value of OSM interaction. ‘Everyone’ saw that post and you better believe it had a positive effect on both that customer as an individual and anyone who visits that page in the future. I was ecstatic to see that kind of real interaction take place naturally and by accident…
Next month lets take a look at the service industry and OSM, a bit on LinkedIN, and where SEM and SERPS sit in the social mix…
Bib:
(1*) “Probably about 7.34pm on a mild Tuesday in mid-April, around 165,000 BCE”
(2*) “wiio’s laws”
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/wiio.html
