I spent last week in my NY office working with some clients and also courting a new agency partnership. As with all of our presentations, we come up with different and hopefully clever ways to explain how we manage social media – and how it differs from other agencies or experts that may have reached out in the past. We’ve consistently agreed that using the “social media is much like walking into a party” works well to explain the nuances, and the “social media is like going to a networking meeting” is also a great way to paint the picture.
You see, social media is just another giant room full of people. The various networks are much like little clicks in that room – people bound together by a common interest or topic of discussion. The tools we have to manage the various interactions are just like your purse (or pockets if you’re a guy) where you keep your cards, money for tips, and the like so you can appropriately interact and get what you want. And the content is no different than the content you would share with someone in person when engaged in a thoughtful conversation.
And the last point is where most social media “experts” get lost. They want to nametag surf. It kind of reminds me of the Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” commercials…that’s right, today we salute you, Mr. Nametag Surfer Surfer.
You know what nametag surfing is. You’ve all seen it, and many of you have done it. This seems to happen more, ironically, when times are bad – people are desperate to only interact with “influencers” rather than remember that talking with everyone will likely deliver a better result. They go into a networking meeting or party and look at the nametags – hoping to find “someone that matters” and they pretty much ignore the rest. It’s rude. It’s actually counterproductive in most cases. And it makes you look like an ass.
The same is true when people only reach out to “influencers” in the social media world. When agencies or “social media experts” focus their energy only on reaching out to “top bloggers” or “people with X number of followers on Twitter” and the like. We’ve seen firms engage with huge brands and their sole strategy is to take BuzzLogic or BuzzAgent and find the top “influencers” online and communicate with them – only. While these tools are good for helping with narrowing some targets and knowing some key people to interact with (much like knowing who is attending the event you are going to) it is not a social media solution. You can’t nametag surf online and expect real results.
Our social media management focuses on speaking WITH (not TO) everyone. Influencer or non-influencer. We don’t only hang out with the head cheerleader or prom king. We believe that people, regardless of popularity, deserve consideration. That random mom who only has 50 followers on Twitter and a blog with 5 readers may just be the head buyer at Target – and she won’t show up in the clever targeting tools…but she will show up in an RSS feed about “teething.”
The argument from most is that it would take too much time to chat with everyone. Our response is that it costs less to talk to everyone. And talking to everyone is social…especially when you’re interacting about multiple things, not just your product. You wouldn’t walk up to someone at a party and start a conversation with “hi, I’m Amanda, buy my book” would you?
So don’t be a nametag surfer – in real life or online. It’s rude, inappropriate, and everyone notices.
Have comments? We would love to hear them on this blog or give us a call (480) 275-9797, we love feedback of all types!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Welcome to the new world, where nearly everyone in the audience has just as much influence as the popular kids.
Very well put. And yes I think most of are guilty in life and online, it is part of the growing process. The big names seem like the “low hanging fruit” if I could just get one of them to notice me/my company/my product whatever. But in reality, as you stated, it is about talking with everyone because you never know where the friend/customer/influencer may lie.
Thx,
Tim
I don’t agree with the “about taking to everyone”. Nobody is everyone now.
The major changes that drives all this are:
1) communities. before social media, brands where talking to “everyone “, whether it be thru TV, press or radio. Now expectations is that brands come up with messages that are relevant for the communties they are delivered to.
2) the end of “everyone”. because if every brand talks to everyone, this is just information overload and spam.
3) the demand that brand stop talking unless they have a very relevant thing to say.
At the end of the day, this is very useful when communties you’re in filter out the relevant messages from the others.
In an ideal world, brand should stop talking and nurture their ecosystems (made up by communities and influencers) with valuable responses to people …so that people find them and trust them.
Where I agree with you is that “top influencers” is not the right way to go.
As an example, We’ve worked for a major Cosmetic firm and we’ve identified and map hundred’s of relevant “influencers”, grouped in a few communities:
- people discussing luxuory products in skin care
- people discussing bio ingredients in skin care; these people don’t like brands at all
- people discussing medical issues and risk in skin care (aging, cancer…)
There are relevant people and you find influencers in these communities that are important to talk to. These people are not R Scoble or G Kawasaki with a few hundreds of follower in twitter but they are influencers for this specifc purpose.
So it all depends on how you define influencers I guess.
Best
Great response! “everyone” in this context for us is defined as everyone that is already asking about or participating in a relevant discussion – not “everyone” as in all people regardless of interest!
Thanks for writing!
Amanda