<p><strong>TNBT</strong><br />There are probably too many of us who go through life constantly on the quest for <strong>“The Next Big Thing”</strong> - the newest trend that will make us all attractive, slim and wealthy, solving all the world’s problems at once. Much of the time, TNBT is elusive, a closely guarded secret revealed only to a select few. It often seems that the less accessible TNBT is to the common man, the more development money is made available to it. As such, the current Social Media phenomena appear to be the latest TNBT to become a social and technological “hummingbird feeder”; a plastic vessel of sugarwater, set out to attract small but brightly plumed paragons of hyperactivity that dart in, drink deeply, then flit off to the next flower or feeding trough in search of The NEXT Next Big Thing. Many will go away disappointed, convinced that Social Media was an over-hyped “flash in the pan” (for some, that’s quite possible). They were convinced by the <em>“Social Media changes everything”</em> marketingspeak mantra (of those about to pocket gallons of venture capital) that all they really needed was a blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter account and they’d become celebrities overnight, without really understanding Social Media for themselves. It does indeed change many things about how people interact; how we find, read, buy and think online. That much IS fact, but like all other media, it only works when the true marketing fundamentals are present and correctly applied. This article offers a list of five basic things that Social Media, popular and exciting as it is, doesn’t really change. </p>
<p><strong>1- People have to WANT what you have to offer.</strong> This is basic market research and although it’s almost stupid in its simplicity, it’s amazing how many people still try to ignore it. This point has a lot to do with your individual PURPOSE in using Social Media. If you are only concerned with keeping in touch with your friends and extended family, that is one thing. If you wish to use Social Media to market your business or promote a humanitarian cause that is important to you, you will have to verify that there are people out there that are interested in your business or cause. This of course brings us to the next point... </p>
<p><strong>2– People who want what you have to offer need to be able to find you.</strong> We all learned a long time ago that the Internet ain’t Kevin Costner’s baseball field: if you build it, they will NOT necessarily come. This doesn’t have to mean massive SEO (search engine optimization), although that could help. It means writing your sites, posts and comments in such a way that they index intelligently and APPEAL to people with interest in your topic. It also means having enough social skills and outgoing personality to ask people you meet in real life to add you as a friend on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. After all, Social Media is just that, it’s social—and if you don’t have a sufficiently social personality to make the most of it, you won’t realize the potential benefits you are missing. </p>
<p><strong>3– You MUST write things that people in your niche audience are going to CARE ABOUT.</strong> If you are trying to keep business Twitter-mates, you will lose followers if you Tweet every time you are heading off to the dry cleaners, the grocery store or picking the kids up from school. Your friends and family may find this stuff fascinating but trust me, your business associates don’t care. Tweet about your new product, your most recent project or your latest triumph but please, leave those verbal equivalents of oatmeal-covered baby pictures out of it. They are cute to a parent, relative or close friend, but to a business associate they are just an out-of-focus snapshot of a slimy child. As a solution to this, many people have two of everything - Twitter accounts, blogs, MySpace pages and even whole websites; one for friends and family, one for business. Even though the basic idea of Social Media is to let people get to know you, in many situations this makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p><strong>4– Real live communication must take place.</strong> Yes, that means your writings have to look sharp, sound bright and really have something to say that invites response. I was sincerely interested in a certain blog but was so turned off by the author’s writing style and serious abuse of language that I clicked away, convinced that the person who had posted the article was, as Bugs Bunny would say, a “maroon”. Believe it or not, correct spelling, grammar and punctuation DO COUNT, even in today’s functionally illiterate world. Social Media is a way to establish yourself as an EXPERT in whatever field or niche you have chosen. The fastest way to kill that buzz is with difficult-to-read, dumb-and-dumber text full of misspellings and grammatical train wrecks. Use your spell checker.</p>
<p><strong>5– Answer the question NOW WHAT?</strong> If you are trying to use Social Media for business, we can only assume that once people find and read your blog, receive your tweets and accept your friend requests, you are going to want them to do or buy something. The point here is to construct a workable yet subtle transition from the social to the commercial without a visible demarcation point that says “You have just graduated from friend to customer.” The Holy Grail of Social Media is for them to feel that they have graduated from customer to friend.</p>
2009-09-16T16:26:56Z
2009-09-17T12:02:39Z
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2009-09-17T05:58:00Z
2009-09-17T12:02:39Z
Social media changes everything...or does it? Here's the top five real-world things Social Media DOESN’T change.
My Blog Can Beat up Your Blog!
1
2009-09-17T12:02:39Z