Facebook groups for advertising campaigns with half of the 50 fans working at the ad agency who thought up the idea. Twitter as a popularity contest. LinkedIn connections collected like fur trappers collected animal pelts.
Quite frankly, I’m tired of hearing about social media. It’s not the oversaturation of articles about social media on blogs and in the news. It’s not the glut of “social media experts” who follow the Substance Twitter account at the mention of “social media,” notwithstanding the context in which the term is used. I’m tired of hearing about social media because so much of the focus is on the media and so little is thought about the social. You’ve got it backwards, people.
As my good friend and co-worker Erin once said (or maybe tweeted), “more social, less media.” Don’t worry about the technology. Yet. First figure out why your company and your brand should be interacting with people, not talking at them. If you can’t answer that question, the media really doesn’t matter. But if you can answer why, or you’re willing to find your why, you’re on your way to figuring out what’s the right medium and what’s the wrong medium. Maybe your own unique Facebook group isn’t the right solution, but you should be interacting with existing, relevant Facebook groups. Maybe Twitter shouldn’t be used as a sales channel but a customer service channel. Maybe a blog isn’t the best way for your CEO to communicate with people.
A prospective client asked what our social media strategy is. I told him we don’t have a social media strategy. Instead, we look at what our clients want to accomplish, why they want to accomplish it, and then figure out the best ways to communicate this. We call it interactive brand strategy. There is no formula. There is no automatic process you can follow. There is no secret social media weapon that will solve all your brand’s problems and make everyone love your company and buy your products.
I think Dave Allen is on the right track when he writes that part of the problem is that it’s the social web, not social media. But I think we should push this even further. I’d argue that it’s not the social web, but it’s the social interaction. Social networks and interactions have existed for centuries; they’ve existed online for a very short amount of time.The web, for all its greatness, is not social. It’s a collection of technologies, a medium. It facilitates social communication in many ways, but it’s the people, not the platform.
More social, less media.
Totally agree. One thing that always gets me the sideways look from clients is proposing that they might need some new website at all, just get out and actually contribute something. Actually engage in some sort of meaningful relationship with their customers.
I wrote a little about this yesterday at TiV. I think people look at the outcome of things like the Chappelle event downtown and mistake it for a result of technology, when in fact, it was merely facilitated by technology.
Any way, nice post. See you Friday!
10:44 am / 16 July 2009
You beat me to the punch on this post! Having a “social media strategy” before you know what the brand needs to communicate – or to whom it’s communicating – is like Mike Brady designing the same Brady House for all clients, regardless of what they really need (a scene you may recall from the Brady Movie). You just can’t use an off-the-shelf strategy and expect it to work.
Marketing *at* people, and not having a conversation, is an abuse of social media channels. I vote for a little more conversation!
10:51 am / 16 July 2009
nice social media blog post about the oversaturation of social media on blogs.
11:12 am / 16 July 2009
Chris: ironic, isn’t it?
11:16 am / 16 July 2009
Excellent point Stephen. The social media bandwagon is moving swiftly and everyone wants to hop on.
I use Twitter to connect with my audience: sharing industry news, design tips, design inspiration, and business advice. If my posts provide new business for my company, that’s great but it’s more about sharing than selling.
1:07 am / 22 July 2009
Really nice to see when someone gets it and isn’t fooled by all the bells and whistles of technology. Even better, when that same approach is taken by an entire company.
You’re absolutely right that people have it backwards. I think the reason for this is that people somehow assume that technology can magically do everything for them but it just doesn’t work that way. If you want a real relationship, you need to connect and commit to that relationship yourself, not send some bits or bytes in your place (as Seth Godin noted in a video on social networking last week).
I mean I’ve seen people create a website and spend money on all the SEO crap, only to come to me afterward and say, “Why aren’t people coming to my site?” My first question to them is “Do you socialize and converse with others on their websites?”. Of course they usually respond with “No”.
It’s pretty simple when you just visualize what’s happening. Just imagine that you’ve moved to a new city and your website is your apartment. Right now you’re basically talking to yourself in your home. Until you step out that door and start “interacting” with other people in your neighborhood, people won’t even know you exist.
So pretty much as Justin said, you have to get out there and contribute. Unfortunately what I see people do next is comment on a site saying something like “Interesting post. BTW check out my business site relating to blah, blah, blah.” Whoa, way to kill the conversation and turn off people!
It’s not about “selling” yourself. It’s about contributing something truly meaningful to the conversation. In effect, if the conversation doesn’t interest you, then don’t waste your time engaging in it. The more engaging the conversation and the more meaningful it is to you (no matter if it relates directly to your business or not), the more passionate you will be about it.
The end result is that people don’t come to your site because you’re selling something, they’ll come to your site because they find you interesting and often can “relate” to what you had to say (the first critical component in a relationship). Thus they’re interested in learning more about you, what you do, and so on. That’s the goal of your website, to expand upon the conversation started elsewhere and to expand upon your story to let people know who you are as a person (or as a company). Thus the more they can relate to you, and the more you can relate to them, the greater the chance for a real long term relationship to be started (be it personal or professionally).
11:51 am / 5 August 2009