Social Media & Separating Yourself From the Pack
As a digital marketing consultant, I’m fully aware of all the “social media” gurus out there and individuals preaching that “social media” is the holy grail for all of your marketing problems. Truth be told, social media is a great technology that has enabled the democratization of content, and it allows smaller entities to broadcast and rally their communities without having to knock at the doors of “big media”.
Sometimes what they don’t tell you though is advertising, marketing, and PR concepts still apply when using social media. People don’t just blindly engage with your ideas or concepts, they must be given a reason to care. Tweeting or incessantly Facebook posting about your brand & not engaging in conversations is still considered spamming. One of the most important aspects of this two way conversation is you still need to give people a reason to care.
People buy things based on a feeling or on a story. It’s important to always think about your community and the consumer. Once you understand what they want & figure out ways to provide it to them your job will become a lot easier. It’s also important to be original when marketing through social media. The attention span of Internet users keeps getting lower and harder to please the more we get bombarded with information left & right. That’s why it’s so important to consider how your company will get noticed through marketing. It’s necessary to think about your direct community and exactly how you’ll have an impact.
A great example of this concept I want to share is an article I read about a year ago and I still remember it to this day. It was about a teen who posted online that he would give people private concerts at their house as he trekked around the US. He would travel to a city and tell people he was in town and they would book him to get serenaded at their homes. I thought it was such a great concept, especially considering the out of the box method he used to approach marketing a concert in this day and age, when everyone’s Facebook inbox is overloaded with potential events. It even got him enough press to the point of being published in Ad Age. This is a great example of thinking outside the box and finding ways to separate yourself from your competition. I would love to hear your thoughts on different ways you can use social media for marketing and promotion.