Welcome to my new blog, the Social Media Spelunker. A place where I’m going to feel out exactly what to discuss within this forum. And I’m going to rely on you to give me feedback on the types of material you’d like to see here.
Now, you may be asking yourself “What is a Social Media Spelunker?” By definition, a spelunker is “one who makes a habit of studying and exploring caves.” Caves can be dark and mysterious places and can also be very attractive to the adventurous or overconfident. However, there are many pitfalls and hidden dangers awaiting those who blindly stampede into them unprepared.
Forays into social media, if you had not guessed by now, are much like those into caves. Those who have entered them feel qualified to hold themselves out as experts. After all, they seem innocuous enough. But the dangers are real, and their consequences can be big. Even the most experienced companies can fall prey to their allure (if you don’t believe that, ask Delta, Dell or Nestle).
So what can you do to prepare? Exactly that – prepare. Don’t go in blind. Know what you want before going in, and what outcome you want to have afterward. Then perform the three “P”s:
- Plan - Lay out the roadmap of what you want to achieve.
- Prepare - Define your success metrics, and how you are going to achieve them (including assistive tools and targeted social media channels).
- Proceed - Implement everything you have planned out.
All that’s left now is to get started. Before we do, I’ll cover some of the basic rules of social media. These are not all of the rules, they are not even THE rules (if any such rules even exist), but they are the ones that I think are important. We’ll start with two of the biggest ones.
The Ten Rules of Social Media
1. When Building a Social Media Strategy, your approach should not be terribly different than traditional marketing techniques. The opposite approach is simple, and equally wrong. If your strategy starts with “What is our Facebook (or other social media channel) strategy”, your very premise is flawed. Do you even know if your customers are even on Facebook? Let alone how many of them or their demographics if they are? Instead, begin by asking four basic questions.
- What products or services are you trying to market?
- Who are these products or services targeted toward?
- Are they a participant in social media? If so, on what mediums (Facebook, Twitter)?
- What marketing and promotion strategies will assist you in reaching them?
2. Your Companies Number of Fans/Followers do NOT Matter in the Least. Your number of
engaged fans however does matter greatly. Imagine the following scenario.
Company A: 400,000 fans / 50% engagement
Company B: 800,000 fans / 25% engagement
If we were looking to initiate a direct mail campaign, Company B’s raw numbers will get the most eyeballs on your promotional materials. But in social media, Company A’s numbers are far more valuable than Company B’s. Both companies have the same number of engaged fans, but Company B’s number of unengaged, transitory fans triple that of their engaged fan base, while Company A’s numbers of engaged and unengaged fans remain equal.
When the inevitable public relations disaster happens, Company B will find itself with a wave of overwhelming negative feedback from their perceived fan base that will dwarf that from their engaged fans. This will lead to the perception, whether real or implied, that the more frequent negative opinions are in fact the prevailing opinions of Company B’s entire customer base. It will also frustrate their real fans as their support for Company B will be drowned out by the mob. Unengaged fans are no more fans of your company than the average long-ball hitter at the driving range golfer is a qualified professional golfer.
In the next post, we’ll continue with rules 3 and 4. If you have suggestions of things you’d like to see, or if you agree/disagree with this post, post your comments and let’s all discuss it. That, after all, is the ultimate power of this social media medium.