From Advertising to Interesting

When I see articles like the one displayed here questioning the vitality of Social Networks as a viable marketing channel I laugh. And not just a giggle either, it is a full on belly laugh – all the way to the bank. Social networks are “social” places. Traditional advertising and cut and paste print advertising does not work and has no place in them. Attempting to use these methods to reach consumers is on par with placing a square peg in a round hole. The term Behavioural Targeting gives me another giggle. Huge amounts on money, brain power and industry effort is put into this exercise. It is the real world equivalent of a dog chasing a car or a moth drawn to a flame. But being the moth is never the same as being the flame. So behavioural targeting will always be a less effective strategy than being the flame or being interesting.

Has social media lost its luster? - iMediaConnection.com via kwout

Changing from Advertising to interesting is the only way to fully reach your consumer market in Social Network spaces. Move your content from the side of the page, banner ads, to rich and engaging content in the middle of the page. Not only is it inline with what people expect to see in Social Network spaces but, unlike banner ads, its placement is free. What does this mean? Simply become a content provider that interacts with consumers as they would with each other and do it honestly.

Some easy steps to becoming interesting

• Think of yourself as a personality not a product
• Create content that engages consumers (e.g. ask a question)
• Follow up – one time placement is not much different than spam
• Is it something you would send to your friends?
• Evolve over time, that is reveal more and different aspects of yourself
• Value the relationships you build with consumers

How do you make behavioural targeting work for you? Behavioural targeting is a good predictor of what people want. Rather than using it to place banner ads, use it as a predictive tool to place content they want where they want to see it. Offer more not less to the relationship and it will pay dividends.

The Death of Society Not Yet!

In a series of fascinating editorials in the New York Times and various blog spheres pundits have declared that Society is not falling apart and in fact it is getting a resounding "Hurrah" from many big names such as Pepsi Cola. The two articles referenced in this blog are just the tip of the iceberg of the avalanche of support for Society. What I mean by this is that both individuals and major corporations believe strongly that Social Media is a force to be reckoned with.

This comes as no surprise to this author, or anyone else that currently occupies space above ground. What is a surprise is that it has taken an age for business to grasp the obvious. For eons people have been working in social structures because it simultaneously benefits the individual and the great good. However in the business world the concept of "Social" seems to have been largely avoided. Let me explain this briefly.

People do well because they chat, share, help each other build barns, and generally like being around each other for support and an occasional giggle. But corporations have always been somewhat anti-social in their approach to interacting with their customer base. "Here is a new product -- buy it!" seems to be the limit to their conversational skills. Even their feint attempt a customer relationship management was no more than building databases so that they could better estimate customer value and make more efficient the "handling" of customers.

Social interaction is one of the fundamental traits of humans. And perhaps that is why Corporations have missed it -- because it is a human trait. But since Corporations are fundamentally made up of humans it was only a matter of time before the light bulb went off in someone's head.

In these last few years we have seen a transformation on how product and service information is communicated. With an increasing amount of content and still only having 24 hours in a day we will see people becoming increasingly selective of how they spend their time. People chose to socialise with other people for a variety of reasons, but mainly it all boils down to one reason -- it adds value to their life. In the age of an audience of one, corporations will need to understand better the basics of human nature -- we are foremost social beings.