Social Media Fairy Tales

 

In the past few days, we've seen firsthand the power of social media. The first reports describing the horror immediately following the devastating earthquake in Haiti were from Tweets and instant messages. Now, millions of dollars are being raised from text message donations that are charged right to donors' phone bills. Social media is making a dramatic difference because of its sheer volume and speed. For more information about Red Cross text messaging donation options and participating wireless carriers please go to the following link ~ www.redcross.org/en/t2h

On a much happier note, we also learned this week that after a 23-year run of running ads during the Super Bowl, Pepsi is opting instead to spend the $20 million for an online marketing campaign. Good for you, Pepsi. Could it be you want to get feedback in real time? Could it be that you like the idea of interacting with customers and hearing what's new and fresh in their minds while it's, well, new and fresh in their minds? Could it be that you get it? Pretty sure you do. The $20 million was a great clue.

So, why do social media myths and fairy tales still swirl about? What is so hard for some people to understand? What is it that people still don't get?

Here are just a few myths that continue to rear their ugly imaginary heads:

1.  The words "social media" are overused.

Are the words sky, water, or air overused? How about computer, internet, advertising or marketing? Social media is social media. It's not a buzzword or trend that will go away in a year or two. Without a doubt, it will advance in leaps and bounds. Getting on board now just makes sense. Remember when computers were as big as a large room? It was impossible to envision that one day we'd be able to hold a computer in one hand. Check out this link to read about some of the latest really, really, small options. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/worlds-smallest-computer.html

2.  There is a secret social media formula that will catapult you/your business/your non-profit into the money.   

There are social media formulas that you can pick and choose from and adapt to fit your schedule, staff, and resources. There's a virtual candy store of platforms and options. Here's the secret...they all take work. There are no silver bullets. If someone claims to have all the answers they most assuredly don't. If you get help from an expert and something doesn't sound right, then it isn't. You know your organization better than social media experts and any plan can be tweaked and adjusted to fit your organizational needs.

3. You have to have tangible ROI goals before you start a social media campaign. It's not good business if you don't.

Your goal is to build good relationships. Your ROI is customer loyalty. Of course, you do need to set goals and objectives. Of course, you need a way to measure progress. Like all advertising, the results you realize depend on the relationships you build with your followers, customers or donors. If you're lousy at building relationships your ROI is pretty much going to stink. In any ad campaign, success comes after you build your base of followers. Right? You have to put relationship building in the equation or there is no ROI. Something tells me that Pepsi gets it.

4.  Social media is a bunch of hooey.   

This myth is one that non-social media evangelists are banking on.  I heard it recently from a former colleague in marketing and I still haven't lifted my jaw that squarely dropped to the floor. If you are in business, any kind of business, you owe it to yourself and your customers to take a look at your social media options. There are lots of them from which to choose.

Try to shoo social media off your shoulder like a housefly. You can bet that it will most assuredly come back and bite you in the derriere... like a horsefly.

 

Coffee, please, with a side of #hashtags...the brilliance of Twitter

In his blog post nearly a year ago GIGAOM, Om Malik gave us "A Brief History of Twitter" detailing Jack Dorsey's project with Odeo, Corp. that began on March 31, 2006.  Just five months later, the results of Dorsey's work was witnessed by Malik at a party in San Francisco on July 15, 2006. That was the gestation period for Twttr. Five months. Twttr was the original name...the logo color was a juicy green and no birds were in sight. For more detail, please check out Om Malik's "A Brief History of Twitter" http://gigaom.com/2009/02/01/a-brief-history-of-twitter/ on GIGAOM.

The project came out of @jack's desire to create a real-time, micro-messaging, no installation service to connect people from their phones thus creating social groups. A short code messaging service (SMS) to connect people right on the spot would do the trick and thus create electronically-driven social groups or even mobs. Rather than calling muliple friends to say "I'm at a great new club listening to the best band since ABBA having a drink that'll blow your socks off" you could message it to all your friends at once and BOOM, that great new club is hit with your personal social mob. So, that's pretty brilliant, right? Right. But is it the end all be all to Twitter's brilliance? Nah. It gets better.

The brilliance that started with Twttr came not too much later with invention of the hashtag and the global marketing community has us, the consumer to thank for it. And, a couple of other people like Chris Messina who came up with the idea and tweeted it at exactly 12:26 P.M. on August 23, 2007....about a year after the creation of Twttr. Read more at http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/08/25/groups-for-twitter-or-a-proposal-for-twitter-tag-channels/ or follow Chris on Twitter @chrismessina. Chris suggested the pound sign as a way to group people, specifically, like-minded friends, or friends that were like-minded about certain subjects. Like my daughter, Chris must have liked organizing things as a child. (My daughter actually inventoried her Halloween candy one year.) One of the first significant applications of the hashtag was by Nate Ritter @nateritter with his use of #sandiegofire to earmark his real time updates on the disaster. More on the history of the hashtag can be found here:  http://www.socialbrite.org/tag/hashtags/

So, Pat, you're thinking..."that's nice. What's the big deal for the global corporate market? How could just one teeny little pound sign be such a big stinkin' deal?" The brilliance is that marketing doesn't just talk to us any more. We get to talk back in real time. On the spot. The lowly pound sign has, in essence, turned marketing upside down. In the time you can click out 140 characters on your keyboard, you can let the people that follow you know about lousy customer service or inferior products. You'd be right in thinking, "gee whiz, we could do that with an email." True. But the brilliance of Twitter's hashtag is that we are grouped into social mobs by our likes and dislikes, if we use the hashtag as a signal. The next new beautiful innovative thing that lights your fire and floats your boat can be broadcast around the world in real time. Things that move you and things that touch you all can be shared in real time. There's no more hiding behind arcane phone systems to register complaints when you can shout it from the proverbial rooftop and a lot of people will listen. Stick a #hashtag in front of a key word and if enough people share your experience, positive or negative, it just might become a trending topic. Before you know it you have a social group. You may even start a social mob. That's what I call power to the people. Brilliant!