No matter how great a social network might be, bells, whistles and what not- It doesn’t happen without people. It lives and dies by what the users do with it. How many great start-ups and applications die on the vine because no one knew about them? Is it because of a lack of marketing?
I was reading the post 7 social media truths you can ignore this morning when I was struck by one of the last things mentioned in the post which said, Provide Value.
As soon as I saw that, I had to get this thought out.
Scene 1.
You’ve been dating your significant other for a few months now and have decided to end it. Why?
They’re not bringing enough value to the relationship. Of course that translates better into things like:
What does that look like in the online world of social media? I unfollow you on Twitter because all you do is tweet out links and you’re not giving me enough value in the relationship.
What did I expect? I’m not sure. A business relationship? Maybe.
I followed you based on what your bio said. Oh wait, I followed you because you followed me. Similar to picking someone up in a bar isn’t it? You looked hot, we didn’t really talk much, mainly because it was so loud and dark; but on the surface you looked promising. So I had no expectations in the first place.
Value or perceived value is so subjective and so hopeful isn’t it? It always is in the beginning.
Shouldn’t the value that we want or expect out of others be commensurate to what we are putting out there? I’m trying, shouldn’t you? Or is it one way, or one sided?
Scene 2.
If I’m on a basketball team and I bust my ass in practice and during games, I should expect that of my teammates right? What if they don’t? Should it bother me? Should I complain? Should I say something to someone? What if we still win? What if each component functioning on its own and in its own way contributes to the sum total of the parts?
Should I demand value from my teammates? If I don’t get it, do I quit? or do I focus on my own game and do what makes me who I am and let it go? Is that selfish? Is it up to me to tell them that they are not bringing enough value? What if that’s the best that they can do?
If I expect value from every relationship or scenario that involves other people and I don’t get it, what am I going to do? I can abide by that mantra in social media, or try to abide by it, but to honestly and genuinely expect it from every relationship that I engage in in social media, is going to render us all sorely disappointed. no two relationships are going to render the same results. That doesn’t mean that it has to suck. Or that you end it. You can cultivate the good relationships. Just treat the rest of the relationships for what they are. Just people being people.
I am wont to say from time to time that the value you take in social media should be equal to the value that you make. I still believe that and I still tell others that. It’s a good cornerstone. But sometimes I think we focus too much on the Utopian way things need to be in social media instead of the way things just are or will be.
I was looking at a list of clients that I had worked with over the past couple of years and it’s well over 40. It’s not a big number, but what caught my eye was that I had created a matrix of what I had done specifically for each client.
More importantly what struck me was that as much as I had done, in the grand scheme of things, a lot was predicated on how much the company I was working with embraced what I was doing.
It’s easy to assume someone is not working when it seems something is not working…
Some of these companies embraced what I did and others did not, so the results were mixed. In some cases, I made mistakes, which made me better the next time I did it, but it also gave some individuals within these companies the notion that social media does not work. What they needed to say was that, “We needed to give it more time”.
Here’s what’s interesting.
“Doing” Social media can sometimes give you the impression or sense that you have done or accomplished a lot, but the reality is that as a channel, as a stand alone entity, it needs the support of a lot of other “things” in order to truly “work” and be most effective. And then, it works best if it’s in conjunction with all the other activities, marketing or otherwise within your organization or the organization you’re working with.
What do those activities look like? Here is a slight list of some of the activities that were done with my clients and that I do for clients.
So as you can see, it’s a lot, and it’s not even a complete list of all the things that I have done or that it can encompass. Funny thing is, that social media can sometimes give you the sense or a business for that matter, as I said, that you’ve accomplished a lot more than you really have. Or at least that might be the false perception of the client. The actuality again, as has been said many times by myself and others, is that social media marketing and engagement is very labor intensive. You just have to look under the hood. How do you feel about that?
So which would you do?
Is it still the most effective way to reach your audience?
I haven’t done a post on stuff I’ve saved lately, and I love when others share links, articles and sites with me, so here’s a few that I’ve accumulated.
I’ve been writing and talking a lot about Facebook and children and parents lately, and the site Togetherville is at least a step in some direction. I don’t know if it’s the answer but at least someone is doing something.
I came across Tlists when I showed up on one of it’s lists of “The most listed Tweeters on 921 lists about Social Media”. Find the best tweeters on any topic.
When I participated in this innovative Twitter project by Toby Bloomberg is an incredibly smart marketer out of Atlanta, I had no idea she would make it into an ebook, but it’s a great read and was a great idea! – Social Media Marketing GPS: A New Media Roadmap For Creating A Social Media Strategy
What are the top brands on Facebook? What might be a better question is, Are you surprised at who you see on this list? Fan Page List has all the data.
From one of our weekly Tweetchats hosted by JD Lasica on Facebook and Privacy, this link was shared: Facebook Backlash Sparks Transparency Tools which has a couple of really good tools in the article.
While we’re at, have a look at Openbook
I can’t say it any better than this: Where DIY meets WTF..
Turn an email address into a social profile with Flowtown
This has some potential now that Ning has constructed pay walls; Add a forum or social network to your blog with BlogFrog
This last post was so dead on and had me laughing and nodding my head all in the same breath. 8 websites you need to stop building
Got any I might have missed?
Which one of the following 3 infographs might be the most accurate?
I jumped in on the weekly #brandchat discussion that was happening on Twitter yesterday to answer the following question:
What do small businesses need to be doing less of?
Great question. Here was my answer…
Less of Big and more of Small.
I got an “amen and a hallelujah for that tweet. What did I mean? Hold tight because I’m going to use a couple of baseball references again, but I will keep it short and simple.
The first is this. Did you know that baseball players get paid millions upon millions of dollars to fail seven out of ten times? That’s right. They generally have to hit the ball three times out of ten, and they are considered good at what they do. Why? Because it’s so damn hard to do.
We often overlook or I should say, most seem to think that implementing social media can be done by…
A monkey.
What ends up happening is that folks bail out after a month or so because talking to people, customers, monitoring sites, creating consistent content, is hard and it’s labor intensive. You have to really work at it and be diligent. Sorta like hitting a baseball.
Not everyone can hit .300.
Funny thing is, baseball players who do hit the ball 3 out of 10 times, work very hard at it, constantly. Some are gifted and it comes naturally-the rest, which is most of them, have to work just to get near .300.
Same goes for creating and planning and implementing social media. It’s hard and not for the faint of heart. You have to believe and trust in yourself and your abilities to get it done.
But you know what? Being a singles hitter or maybe someone who hits the occasional double in baseball aint a bad thing. We all can’t be big hitters. Playing small ball is OK.
In the social media world, there are a lot of choices and sites and things that you can do so that you or your client can be seemingly everywhere. That’s really tough and can lead to some serious social media burnout. But here’s a better idea. Quit trying to be a home run hitter. Play small ball. Be really good at hitting singles and the occasional double. Meaning? Be really good at blogging. Have a solid Twitter strategy. Be honest about what each piece of social engagement is going to bring back. In the baseball world that’s the equivalent of knowing you cannot hit a curveball. Know your limitations and be really good at what you can be really good at.
The payoff? A really long career and a happy client.
Yesterday I was listening to ESPN Radio and Three-time World Series champion Curt Schilling was explaining some of the finer points of baseball, when he came up with the following nuggets of wisdom. They were so insightful for the world of baseball, but when I got to thinking of them more, they started to resonate into other areas. Check them out and tell me what you think.
That last one stopped me in my tracks. Value. Value is perspective. He was talking about how GM’s have to look at talent from the perspective of what it means to the organization and how it can help them, regardless of a person’s age, salary or diminishing skills.
I naturally equated value to what we do in social media and thought that…
Not only is value perspective, it’s subjective as well.
In other words, The way you use social media might not be the way the others do “it”, or the way I might use it, but if it’s working for you and your organization, then who am I to tell you to stop? I can suggest some other things to compliment it, or tell you why it might not be a good idea to do this or that, but in the end if it ain’t broke-don’t fix it.
Value to your organization will be perspective.
Think about that.
The takeaway? You can define engagement through social media anyway you like- just as long as it’s working for you.
For you baseball peeps, here is the interview with Schilling 
This is where my head is at right now. I’m listening to the pushback from Facebook users and parents who are concerned about Privacy. I’m compiling an exhaustive list of blog posts and articles related to Facebook, children, and privacy and how it impacts all of us.
Stay tuned for the wiki. In the meantime, here are 15 links to posts that address the issues that dominate not only my thoughts and hopes to see something done about Facebook’s complete disdain for its users; but also what keeps parents up at night… Some of the links here are to not only open parents eyes to what they are forced to deal with right now, but also in “how” to deal with it. I hope it helps.
Facebook: Children evade social websites’ age limits
Social media create new bullying issues for schools; Collier forum set for Monday
Too young for social networking?
Facebook, states set bullying, predator safeguards
How can parents access their children Facebook account
What is Facebook Doing to Protect Children from Sexual Predators?
Facebook ‘fails to protect children’
How To Monitor Children On Facebook
Should you be Facebook friends with your children?
Facebook urged to add ‘panic button’ for children
Facebook May Share User Data With External Sites Automatically
The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand
NYU Students Start Privacy-Minded Social Media Site
Direct Marketing Observations 