The Social Web Party: BYOB
By Lon S. Cohen
Ideally, Social Networking may be for everyone but many companies are jumping into the fray with little or no idea about what they want to accomplish or with expectations set too high. One thing you have to remember is it takes lots of time and hard work and a little bit of money. The community is not out there for the picking just waiting for you to join the party. You have to bring something special to your Social Marketing plan. Don’t be the guy who shows up to a bash with nothing, eats all the food, drinks all the punch and then passes out in the bathtub with a lampshade on his head. Just don’t. If the Social Web is like a party, then it’s definitely BYOB.
Since it’s all the buzz in the media these days, Twitter seems to be the one place every company just has to be. Every day I get followed by a plethora of new Twitter profiles from Real Estate Agents to equities investors to the next great Social Media Maven. Twitter is already littered with thousands of defunct and abandoned profiles. So while it’s a great place to have a conversation, Twitter is much less effective for strict marketing.
Everyone is thinking that same thing: I’m different. I’m not “selling” anything. Like attending a cocktail party or a mixer, I’m just here to talk to people and let them know about my company and products and services—if it happens to come up in conversation, I mean. Or they think that Twitter is a great place to point an RSS Feed so that all those people will follow and click on links to a brilliant stock market forecasting blog or the feed that tells people the daily fluctuations on CD rates. Can you think of anything you’d want to follow less than a Twitter feed that drones on and on about percentage rates? I can’t. Know that guy you met over the weekend at your friend’s bar-be-que who went on and on about the laddered techniques of his municipal bond investment strategy? Don’t be him.
If you’re just starting to get onto the Social Web, I suggest you forgo the big plans for a little while and do some investigating. Tale a page from Jay Rosen when he said that the best way to understand something is to try it out. Play around. Get to know the way things are done. One of the good things about the Social Web is people like to share ideas so there’s a lot of great information out there to get you up to speed. From banking to nonprofits, your favorite insider newspaper or magazine probably has already covered Social Web Marketing for your particular industry with some great case studies. Better yet, hire a consultant to train you and your marketing staff on the ins and outs of the Social Web and how other companies like yours may have already benefited from it.
At this point, unless you’re a true online marketing innovator, you’re probably not going to jump onto the Social Web and change the game, especially if you’re new. People are sophisticated enough to spot the rookie mistakes. But don’t worry because they’re also very forgiving. They’ve probably made a few of the same mistakes themselves along the way. (Remember your first weekend away at a college party? Anyone?) If you make those newbie mistakes prepare to take a little ribbing but don’t worry about it too much and don’t get too defensive. One thing that Social Web people excel at is forgiveness in the face of sincerity.
But even if you’re jumping in with both feet and don’t know a #hashtag from a Fan Page, if you stick with it, read up on best practices and approach it with honesty and good intentions, you’re bound to succeed over time. The Social Web is about being a part of a community then staking out a little bit of ground within that community by becoming a knowledge leader in your specialty or a respected editor of information.
Like I said, forgo the big overarching strategy for now. Do some market research. See if there’s a model to follow already in place by others and then tweak it to your specific plan. Engage in honest conversation. Ask lots of questions and keep asking them even if no one answers right away. Jump into the middle of someone else’s conversation if you have something constructive to offer. Make comments on news sites and blogs related to your industry already on the web. Marry your specialty to the Social Web by offering to write an expert article on some influential websites or blog. Point out your own blog or website to others when you think they could benefit from the information. Then keep building upon any success you achieve. In this way you are building a little place for yourself one little stone at a time. Eventually you’ll have a nice little home here and people will start to come around to visit you, ask you for advice and want to know how you became such a respected knowledge leader in Social Media.