 Now I know I might take some heat for this from my fellow marketers
or zealous fans of social media, but I’m sorry, Social Media is NOT the
silver bullet for marketing my business. It’s not even a bronze
bullet. Frankly, it’s maybe a nickel-plated bullet in a clip full of
other bullets.
Why? Because most of us are still trying to figure out how to use all these social media web services!
Sure, there’s 28 million people a month visiting Twitter. Sure,
there’s 250 million active members on Facebook. Sure, MySpace has over
100 million and Bebo over 20 million. So what!? Just because we’re on
the site, doesn’t mean we really know what we’re doing, how we’re
suppose to use it, or why we actually would care about it!
The point is that these web sites and those like them are simply
tools. Tools that we’re still trying to get accustomed to just like
how we were when the first affordable “personal computer” were hitting
homes near you! Those PC’s were known as “dumb machines” in that they
could not do anything without input Guess what, these social media
sites are the same. Like then, we are learning the concepts of how to
use these tools. What are the inputs? What do we get out of it? How can
we use this in our daily lives?
Ah ha! There is the silver bullet! The concepts that we learn from using these tools!
The Silver Bullet is in How We Connect, Communicate, and Create Communities
Social media has brought back the idea that we are all human. That
we all have emotions. That we all have thoughts, beliefs, desires,
goals, likes and dislikes. It’s reminded us of the friendly handshake
and how we really only trust people that are a lot like us and we have
a relationships with.
Connect
Social media has allowed us to connect to one another on a personal
level even if we’re geographically far apart. It’s allowed us to get to
know one another through conversations that turn into relationships
built on commonality and trust.
Businesses have to learn how to engage customers on a more personal,
direct level. We have to open up and show that we’re really just a
group of people that want to help our customers in some area of their
lives. We’ve kept ourselves too formal, too closed off.
Communicate
These social media tools allow us to use many different media
formats to communicate with one another. We share audio, video, and
pictures with one another as ways of reinforcing our relationships. We
can chat with one another instantly or share messages back and forth
through emails and comments on one another’s pages and blogs. We learn
to share our voice and combine our voices. This allow us to stand
together and rally around things we believe in, want to engage in, and
have a desire to see change.
Businesses have to realize that we cannot communicate using one
method and neglect all the others. And our messaging is not about who
we are, but about who our customers are and why WE WANT JOIN THEM in
making their lives better. To do this, we should communicate the way
our customers want to communicate instead of forcing them to use our
methods.
Creating Communities
The best part about these social media tools is that they taught us
how to form communities. Even better, we can form communities right
next door to thousands of other communities of which we can be a part
of as well! Each community may appeal to one of our passions, our
desires, or our expertise. We can become known, respected, and desired
to be connected to, to have engaged in the community.
Businesses think the community should be completely around them.
Instead, make the community around what you are trying to change in the
world. Does your product or service help people accomplish something?
What is that something? That is where you build your community!
The Concepts for Success
These concepts are what combine together to form the “silver bullet”
of marketing your business. Learn them, practice them, refine them, and
implement them and your business will attract customers. And not just
for your product or service, but what you stand for.
Do You Believe in this Silver Bullet?
What about you? What do you think Social Media has taught us? And how does that apply to businesses?
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It'll take time to fully embrace SM
By: Diane M Noboa on January 18, 2010