The Social Media Secret

I am going to put you all out of your misery right now and tell you the most profound truth about social media marketing

. I plan to reveal the very source of its power. What is it, you ask? Putting people in touch with other people. There, I said it.

So, now you have it. Theres no mystical power behind this new method of marketing. Social media simply presents new ways to do an old thing talk to people.

It was Oscar Wilde who famously said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Nowhere is this more evident than with brands in social media.

Seth Godin himself has noted that if your brand has any traction at all, people are talking about you. This scares many traditionalists who dont always like whats being said and squeal about copyright and trademark infringements. There is a clear disconnect here in the understanding of how social media works; and to them I say: get over it. Seth Godin probably puts it better in his post Launching Brands in Public when he says:

You can't control what people are saying about you. What you can do is organize that speech. You can organize it by highlighting the good stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-good stuff. You can organize it by embracing the people who love your brand and challenging them to speak up and share the good word. And you can respond to it in a thoughtful way, leaving a trail that stands up over time.

But what about strategy?

Of course strategy is important. Strategy is how you organise a conversation. Smart social media strategy includes knowing who your audience are and where they spend their time, having an understanding of the importance and influence of content on a conversation and knowing how to associate a brand with topics and subjects that matter to its customers. This all forms part of a broader social media strategy.

Campaigns versus Conversations

Its important to be present and its important to participate. These are probably the two most important factors in the success of a social media campaign.

But social media is about conversations. And there are big distinctions between a campaign and a conversation.

Conversations are continuous, have a bespoke approach, happen in real-time, are based on context and usually reach a conclusion based on a mutually agreed resolution between all the parties that are involved. A campaign on the other hand is less specific and happens within a proposed time-frame with little input from the users or participants.

This is not to say that theres no place for campaigns within social media marketing. On the contrary, campaigns are often the best way to kick-start conversations. Campaigns can also be used to spread and amplify conversations.

People are probably talking about your brand right now. Ignoring these conversations doesnt make them go away. Do you know what theyre saying?

by: AlterSage Consultants

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