This post was inspired by and includes quotes from The Clash of the Social Media Know Nothings.
It isn’t uncommon for businesses to want to utilize social media as a marketing tool. But as a business you need to realize that people aren’t likely to want to socialize with you – so it’s up to you to do the socializing. But be warned, if you “socialize” with the intent of marketing – that really isn’t socializing and people will spot you and call you out very quickly. Online socializing is in many ways an escape for offline socializing – people are looking for something online that they can’t find offline:
We live in a society that is absolutely sick of being advertised to, sold to, and marketed to, which is why most people turn to Farmville and the social networks to ESCAPE commercialism.
Actually, this means that there’s a great potential benefit to actually stepping into the online social space: you’re going to have to be honest – in both your words and your actions. To do this you may have to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what your business is about, why do you want reach out to people and why do you want people to listen to you. I think businesses need to be founded with this kind of introspection – but if you haven’t done it yet – then online social media is a great opportunity to finally do it. You will be hard pressed to engage online social media without an honest and inspiring perspective to offer on you and your business.
There seems to be an alternative to being honest – hiring so called “social media marketing” professionals to professionaly manipulate and misrepresent for you:
The know-nothings. You know who I’m talking about right? Social media “marketers” who have never practiced marketing. Maybe have never even had a sales job or a college-level marketing class. But they’ve created a Facebook page and have 500 followers on Twitter so somehow that makes them a guru.
If you are seriosuly considering this then please consider that social media marketing is still marketing – so make sure you are hiring a professional marketer first, then check his specializations in online social media:
At the end of the day making money on the social web — or anywhere — still gets down to MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS. Research, strategy, planning. Creating points of differentiation. Finding a unique way to delight your customers and out-smart your competitors. And then, using the social web as a channel. Maybe.
Confused – Great! Now all you have to do is roll up your sleeves and slowly try to figure this out for yourself. Being confused is an honest experience – everyone goes through it at one point or another – so everyone can identify with it. Experiment – bring your business and your confusion into online social media. Get on twitter and see what happens. Write honest content on your website and see what happens. When you get no feedback try something new. When you get positive feedback embrace and enjoy it. When you get negative feedback be greatful for it, apologize if necessary, and try a different approach.
Online social media is so popular because everyone is free to choose. You can choose what to tune into and what to tune out. You can voice your opinion on anything and everything for anyone (who hasn’t tuned you out) to hear. In the end, I believe you will find that it isn’t about “utilizing” social media, rather it’s about “participating” in it.
Don’t “Utilize” Social Media – Participate
This post was inspired by and includes quotes from The Clash of the Social Media Know Nothings.
It isn’t uncommon for businesses to want to utilize social media as a marketing tool. But as a business you need to realize that people aren’t likely to want to socialize with you – so it’s up to you to do the socializing. But be warned, if you “socialize” with the intent of marketing – that really isn’t socializing and people will spot you and call you out very quickly. Online socializing is in many ways an escape for offline socializing – people are looking for something online that they can’t find offline:
Actually, this means that there’s a great potential benefit to actually stepping into the online social space: you’re going to have to be honest – in both your words and your actions. To do this you may have to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what your business is about, why do you want reach out to people and why do you want people to listen to you. I think businesses need to be founded with this kind of introspection – but if you haven’t done it yet – then online social media is a great opportunity to finally do it. You will be hard pressed to engage online social media without an honest and inspiring perspective to offer on you and your business.
There seems to be an alternative to being honest – hiring so called “social media marketing” professionals to professionaly manipulate and misrepresent for you:
If you are seriosuly considering this then please consider that social media marketing is still marketing – so make sure you are hiring a professional marketer first, then check his specializations in online social media:
Confused – Great! Now all you have to do is roll up your sleeves and slowly try to figure this out for yourself. Being confused is an honest experience – everyone goes through it at one point or another – so everyone can identify with it. Experiment – bring your business and your confusion into online social media. Get on twitter and see what happens. Write honest content on your website and see what happens. When you get no feedback try something new. When you get positive feedback embrace and enjoy it. When you get negative feedback be greatful for it, apologize if necessary, and try a different approach.
Online social media is so popular because everyone is free to choose. You can choose what to tune into and what to tune out. You can voice your opinion on anything and everything for anyone (who hasn’t tuned you out) to hear. In the end, I believe you will find that it isn’t about “utilizing” social media, rather it’s about “participating” in it.