Embrace Social Media, Embrace ME
There continues to be a lot of talk about how “big business” really needs to embrace social media and how they should connect to their consumers on a more individual basis.
On the surface that might seem like a great idea. It would make most people feel more connected to the brand, or to the company.
But, if we dive in and examine this in more detail we begin to see that it doesn’t make any sense at all.
Make Me Feel Special
Before we dive in to take a real close look at this, let’s examine our own existing behavior.
Since we’re all human here, we have a few basic requirements such as food and water. I’ll pick Food. Where do you get most of yours from? I’d say it was from one of your local grocery stores.
Like most people, you probably go to your local grocery store at least once every two weeks (or once every three or four days if you have kids). For this example, we will say that it is once every two weeks. So, with 52 weeks in a year, you visit the same place at least 26 and possibly more than 104 times each and every year.
Most grocery stores, even big brand ones, are franchises. That means there is a good chance that they are owned by someone living in your own town.
So, here we have one place that you visit 104 times per year, and the answer to the next question should be obvious.
What is the name of the manager of that grocery store?
And if you knew that one, is he/she married? Have any children? What are his/her days off?
Do you really know them, or do you even want to know them?
Are you in the grocery store to take care of the ritual food gathering or are you there on a social level?
If not them, who?
If knowing the manager of your local grocery store isn’t high on your list of priorities, you are not alone. Most people don’t know and don’t care either. Why should they? There’s not a whole lot of bragging rights that go along with it. Nobody is going to look up to you because you are able to drop the manager’s name in a conversation.
So, if the chief marketing officer from a name brand electroncis store started following you on Twitter, or friended you on Facebook – is that more of a big deal?
Would you somehow feel that you had the “inside track” or that you were somehow “in the know”?
If you answered yes, then there are some self-esteem issues and I am not a doctor (but, sometimes I play one on Twitter). If you are offended or feel attacked because I mentioned something about your mental state, then you’ve really just validated my point.
Moving along…
Boil it down, and scrape out the Ego
Being honest with ourselves, what it all comes down to is ego and bragging rights.
It’s not a big deal to know the manager of your local grocery store, but somehow it’s a big deal to drop the name somebody else might recognize.
Sure, I do it too – I’ve mentioned that I was one of Guy Kawasaki’s first few people that he followed.
I’ve drop Chris Brogan’s name a few times. Familiarity is a tool used to create a connection, and I don’t see anything wrong with doing it, as long as simply dropping the name isn’t the “point” of doing it.
Here’s where Social Media comes in
Ahh ha, finally we get to the good stuff.
Social Media and Our Personal Network.
Admittedly, it sounds good on the surface to say that big brands should embrace social media. Why? Simple, because they somehow seem “untouchable” right now. If they were to come and play in our sandbox then we’d feel better about ourselves because they would be more like us. Face it, we spend a lot of time in the social media space – our efforts should be rewarded, should they not?
Get a stronger lens
Just “why” would someone invite more distraction into their life? Why does one welcome the messenger into their social circle? The current form of advertising is all a numbers game – throw your message out to 100,000 people and then consider it a success if you get 100 responses. Would you really purchase a new pair of shoesjust because Bob from Nike was in your friends list? Or would you rather just tell everyone that you “know Bob”? Why should Bob need to play the social media game when shotgun advertising already works?
Twitter Dee, Twiddle Dum – ho hum
@ChrisBrogan, who lives and breathes social media, is one of the nicest people whom I’ve had a chance to meet. He currently has a little over 22,000 Followers on Twitter. @BarackObama, on the other hand, has 139,175 Twitter Followers (but the Obama account hasn’t Tweeted since Nov. 5th).
It seems rather unfair that someone who is already devoted to the social media space doesn’t have 7x the number of followers as a relatively unknown person to the same space. Proof of concept that it’s about Ego – just think how many Obama followers told someone that they were following. How many of Brogan’s followers do you think did the same thing?
Turn off the Hype Machine
I, for one, am already tired of being marketed at.
All the commercials with those fake “testimonials” from people who have tried the product or use the service. Bigger, smaller, faster, stronger, better looking, better smelling, shinier teeth, etc…yea yea yea, buy my product.
Sorry, I sometimes see it for the entertainment value, but no thanks. I am able to decide what I need for myself and I don’t respond well to those who speak the loudest. I’ve tuned out.
What Say You?
Certainly, you either agree with me, I’ve pissed you off, or you think that I have no idea what I am talking about. Somehow I’ve certainly missed some magical “bigger picture” here. Well, let me know by leaving a comment (hit me on Twitter if you wish, but leave a comment here anyhow)
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This blog post was written by Michael Bailey. Michael became interested in Social Media in the Summer of 2005 and has devoted thousands of hours towards the development of the MobaTalk Conversation Studio. He believes that the Context of Conversational data is quickly lost on the web using the currently available tools.
Happy New Year everyone – I hope that the next 12 months lead you even closer to whatever it is that you want.
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