One thing that worries me about the way companies and people approach social media, is the “clone” effect. Everywhere we look, we see people joining every network available, setting up every profile possible, and imitating every successful and popular strategy that they’ve heard of. They do this not because they truly believe is the best way to immerse in social media, but because they are actually clueless on how to deal with this change of rules and consumer empowerment.
The problem with this is the wrong assumption that social media is something that you have to “check.” Companies hire cheap and young employees because they think that since they are young, they “get it.” They don’t realize that to actually make the best out of your social media involvement, you have to be serious about it, face it in an integral way, analyze how each part of your company is going to fit with it. But most importantly, companies have to establish what’s going to make their social media strategy stand out from all the rest. You can’t do what everyone else is already doing, because there’s no value there.
People, that is, your customers, are expecting virality and communication. After all, this are the columns that support this “new fad” that is social media. If you just go around copying others, you won’t deliver that to them, because virality and REAL communication are not transferable, they have to be specifically crafted for each company, for each product, for each culture.
Look at Gary Vaynerchuk for example, and his wildly popular Wine Library TV. Gary is one the most famous examples of a social media success story, and he achieved that not by imitation and laziness, but by using his eccentric personality to his advantage. He understood that to connect with people, which is what social media is all about, you have to be original, transparent and be consistent. Sadly, many companies try to overlook this, and prefer to outsource it, delegate it or simply ignore it.
Or remember what Barack Obama and his team did. During his campaign he garnered 5 million followers through social media. Also, he got a over three million online donors for a total contributionof $500 million in fundraising. Do you think this strategy, with all the specifics that Obama’s story has, with all the implications that come with electing a president, can be copied and done over and over without having mediocre results? It’s impossible, details matter enormously in social media.
In the end, the main reason why you need to be detailed, is because you have to show that you care. We can tell if you don’t, we are experts at it because we’ve been working on the social part for a long time now. Being lazy or trying to be someone else will get you nowhere in this scenario. We want human companies now, we want specifics. Believe me when I tell you that it’s not that hard, you just to have to be serious about it.
Carlos Miceli. Argentinian. Questioner of things. OwlSparks’ blogger. Freelance writer. Entrepreneur. Every day philosopher. Skill learner.
Tags: Advertising, Business, Clone, community, Marketing, online marketing, Social Media
