What’s Wrong With Social Media
by Josh Levine
Sometimes the Hard Way Is the Only Way
Check out this social media conference:
In one day you’ll become an expert in:
- How to get people to “like” your brand
- Developing a winning content strategy to engage your followers
- Measuring the impact of your Facebook initiatives
- Creating your Facebook dream team
- Mastering Facebook’s latest features and adding a new gear to your PR efforts
- Integrating Facebook into your overall communications plan
At least they’re not over-promising.
Have you ever become an expert in anything in one day? What about six things? If it were that easy, would you really need to attend a conference about it?
The real promise of social media is that it helps human beings create a more connected, more creative world. The promise for brands is that they get to participate in that world and more importantly thrive in it.
But it isn’t going to be easy.
If you think it’s about a one-day seminar, you are sadly mistaken. If you think it’s about having the receptionist, intern, or PR person load your TV commercials into YouTube, you are in big trouble. If you think you can outsource it and forget it, you had better forget it.
Social media is not a new media channel that companies can buy, like the way they buy billboard space. I know it would be SO MUCH EASIER if it was, but it just isn’t. It’s a new way of having relationships with customers, and non-customers, and people who may never be interested in your product at all but might have something to add to a conversation that makes it more interesting for everyone else.
What the marketing world needs right now is not seminars and white papers that purport to make everyone experts. What if they said:
You know what, this is hard stuff. You’re not going to get it right over night. We can help you ease the pain and make sure you get it right over time and avoid the potential disasters along the way.
I guess if they did that, they’d sound a bit like us and ticket sales would surely be affected.
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