Social Media is Not the Silver Bullet, It’s the Silver Lining
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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Brian,
I’m a huge advocate of this Silver Bullet (and not just because I work at bars, but I’m an advocate of Coors Light, too!). I will be the first to admit that I utilize Social Media more than the average person, but had to really sit down and “figure it out” before I had faith that it would be effective. With the help of tools such as TweetLater and TweetBeep, I’ve been able to cut the time that I spend on Twitter by over 60%, refocus my energy elsewhere, and also engage in conversations with our customers – who are able to provide us with both negative and positive feedback.
I think Social Media teaches us that as service providers, the best feedback that you can receive is immediate. And as customers, SM is the best way to provide immediate feedback to companies and make sure that you are heard. Some people get scared of hearing the bad stuff. I remember reading “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer and at one point he states, regarding receiving feedback from customers, “it’s all feedback, it’s all POSITIVE, we learn from all of it.” He hit the nail on the head.
For what it’s worth, that’s my two cents!
Cheers!
Monet
Excellent remarks Monet! Thanks for sharing! I like how you bring up the fact that most business are afraid of “negative feedback” coming through social media (i.e. public) channels! You (or rather Danny Meyer AND you) definitely hit the nail on the head. All feedback IS positive because it gives you something to learn and improve from!
If you get positive feedback, give yourself a pat on the shoulders.
If you get “negative” feedback, respond to it, ask for even more feedback about how you can improve, then ACT on the feedback and IMPROVE! If you do, you will “WOW” your customers!