What Is Social Media?
That really is the short answer. The story is in the tactics of each of the hundreds of technologies, all of the tools that are available for you to connect with your customers and prospects, and the strategies necessary to use these tactics and tools effectively.
Ask Your Audience
When I began writing this blog I wanted to hear what my
audience wanted. I’ve written numerous books and technical manuals and I knew
there was a standard formula for writing a typical publication. Basically, I
kept it to the ABCs; accurate, brief, clear. However I haven’t been sure this
blog should follow the formula. Did the audience for a blog on microblogging
want a typical blog? So, I ask you.
I knew that if I asked my audience and delivered what they
wanted, it would be a success. Go figure, ask your customers what they want the
product. Then, you told me some interesting facts. First, you didn’t want
another typical blog on social media. You asked for three blogs in one: Tactics,
in which everything is explained; Tools, with which they can find a
comprehensive list of all the companies providing social media services; and Strategy,
with which you can apply all that you have learned from part one and part two.
The second fact I learned was from the first to questions on
the survey, “Can you define social media?” and “do you believe that social
media would have a significant impact on you and your business?”
What I learned by asking my audience these two questions was
that 66.4% said that they couldn’t define social media and the remaining third
lied. If it takes me nearly 100 chapters and more than 1000 pages to define
social media, they didn’t know, not even the social media “experts” and “gurus.”
The second really interesting fact I learned was that 99.1%,
nearly everyone, said they knew social media was going to have a significant
impact on them personally and their businesses.
These two statistics told me that two thirds of everyone
interviewed didn’t know what social media was, but that it was coming for them.
So What
Is It?
The first part of the terminology, social, refers to the
instinctual needs we humans have to connect with other humans. We’ve been doing
that in one form or another since our species began. We have a need to be
around and included in groups of similar like-minded people with whom we can
feel at home and comfortable sharing our thoughts, ideas, and experiences.
The second part of that term refers to the media we use with
which we make those connections with other humans. Whether they are drums,
bells, the written word, the telegraph, the telephone, radio, television,
email, websites, photographs, audio, video, mobile phones, or text messaging,
media are the technologies we use to make those connections.
The application of the terminology social media in this blog
is about how we can use all of these technologies effectively to reach out and
connect with other humans, create a relationship, build trust, and be there
when the people in those relationships are ready to purchase our product
offering.
What social media is not his boxes silver bullets given to
us by aliens that will instantly solve all of our marketing woes and create
instant wealth for all involved. Too many people are viewing social media as a
foreign constraints of technologies that they may or may not want to use to
market themselves, their companies, their products, and their services.
In my keynotes, two questions always asked our, “Should I be
doing social media marketing?” My answer is “Remove the term social media and
ask it again. Should I be doing marketing?” See how ridiculous that sounds. The
second question is, “How much I should spend on social media marketing?” I
reply with “Remove the term social media again. How much should I spend on
marketing?” And, of course, the answer to both is “Yes, and is much as you can!”
Social media is only a new set of tools, new technology that
allows us to more efficiently connect and build relationships with their
customers and prospects. It’s doing what the telephone, direct mail, print
advertising, radio, television, and billboards did for us up until now. But
social media is exponentially more effective.
