Social Media: If YOU build it, they may not come!

I've been listening to a lot of marketing and social media marketing pod casts lately. A lot of what I've been hearing (with the exception of Marketing over Coffee) is this idea that being engaging in social media will garner traffic/business.

I understand why there are so many sources preaching this message, but I disagree.

I don't think that there is a deliberate attempt to mislead, I just think that there are some gifted people out there who don't realize the power of their strengths. They think success was just getting out there.

If you think about it, social media is a way of engaging people in a relationship. Like all relationships, some people are better fits than others.

I'm happy to say that my wife, Charity, and I are a great fit. She doesn't have to work at all to bring me contentment and fulfillment. Why is this? It's her personality, her gifts, her strengths. She just has to be who she is.

What if Charity was marketing some networking hardware. Her interactions in social media would bring about different results than my efforts. We're different people and we have different ways of managing relationships.

My conclusion is twofold:

1. Some people are going to have to work harder than others in social media marketing.
2. I'm lucky to have an amazing partner in life!

Social Media and Cycles

I started this blog because I have something to say...

and I don't want to mess up my business blog (acmetechworks.blogspot.com).

I just read an blog at scottberkun.com that was written about social media hype and those who are hyping (that's a word, right?) it. Scott's blog refers to another blog that he says has bias toward social media. I'm not going to post the other blog because it looks like someone researched a lot of SEO phrases and put them into an article.

I agree with Scott that marketing people are biased towards social media. I also agree that old marketing strategies still have value.

There are a couple things that have been nagging me about social media.

Firstly, social media are driven by the people. I think it was Justin Foster of www.thetricycle.com who pointed out on a podcast that audience driven agenda (crowd sourcing was what he was talking about) isn't new. Socrates (help me out if I'm wrong, Justin) referred to the people as "the polity", so what's happening now isn't new, we just have new tools to do it with. (I can end sentences with prepositions because I'm an American, and I'm celebrating Independence Day! Happy July 4th!)

The second thing that worries me is that things tend to be cyclic. I'm a latecomer to social media. I started a group on Facebook called "My Wife Made Me Join Facebook", and I was mostly joking when I did it. Now I have a company that has some great product offerings and I'm looking for ways to spread the news. Am I too late? I may have missed the wave.

I listen to a podcast at www.tengoldenrules.com. Somewhere in one of their interviews, the phenomenon of pop-up windows was discussed (not disgust, discussed). In the beginning, the pop-up windows were very effective, but the audience became hardened to them relatively quickly. I worry that social media may go the same way. There are thousands of us who are eloquent, erudite, etc. and we're all beginning to say something. I expect that people will start covering their ears after a while. This is especially true because social media are driven by the people.

Next time: Social media, Cycles and Seats