NOTE: I preface all this with the fact that I like anyone do love a good graph/PPT fodder/pdf with stats in like the next social media geezer and Razorfish have put a stake in the ground that many have not even picked up for years now. That said...]
People. Stop the madness. I've said it before, and i'll say it again : nothing has fundamentally changed. People have two eyes, ears and one mouth, ten fingers and two feet. What different? The methods they use to express themselves and the calls on their attention. I urge you to run the other way if someone tries to tell you 'people like free stuff' is news. Did we not know this? Is this a shock? Surprising? Has this recently changed in some way?
Or if we're intent on having a thrilling truth bomb moment, here are a few more I'd like to drop:
1) Things that motivate people : free, sex, money, pain, pressure or a combination thereof. Please refer to Social Psychology for further information. Getting people to do things is easy. It's often a case of...[gulp] asking them. Other times you incentivise them. I think this idea has been around for a while and they call it marketing or something fancy like that...
2) People don't care about key messaging. Um, did they ever? Did/do journalists? Talk like human-beings. Welcome to social media. They don't need you/us anymore. Our job is now to enable them and create 'needs' whether this is the content drip feed or a must-have item or access. Please refer to the miserable looking guy in the essay below for more details.
3) 'They' own your brand now. Wait. Do you think you owned your brand before? Errrrrrrrrnk/big red x. You never did. You just controlled what you pumped out. 'They' always thought what they thought and you still can't do anything about it. Now move on. Your brand is [ala Chris Anderson/Wired] whatever Google says it is. Worse than that I can tell people I like/loathe your brand with a few clicks and you can do about sweet f-a about it if it's not false. So what will you do about it? Customer service course? Ask your customers to help you make your business better? Skip to 5 if not sure...
4) Awareness is still key. Correct me if I am wrong, but I have yet to see social media, on it's own, launch a FMCG or big-ticket item with any degree of success. It can change hearts, minds and opinions, enrage and engage but launch a brand? Not so much...at least not yet. I have high hopes.
5) Social media makes companies better... whether they want to be or not. Whether they are ready or not. Learn from the good and the bad. Ask ANY Dominos employee if social media has changed their lives or Dell if Twitter can make you money. Sure these are big brands but lessons can be applied to SMBs too. The only thing you need is time, focus and patience.
Are there more truth bombs? Perhaps about rant-prone bloggers?
