Everyday I meet people who ask me about social media. Each of these people have unique thoughts and experiences with online networking. Some of them are whole-heartedly involved, some don't even want to consider it as viable marketing. But I've noticed a sort of pattern emerging. Much like grief, there seem to be five major stages of social media, they pass quickly or last years, but everyone seems to experience them.
Avoidance - People at this stage pretend social media doesn't exist. If you ask them about it they'll respond, "Oh, yeah, my daughter uses that site." This stage usually involves lots of sticking fingers in your ears and yelling "lalalalala" at the top of your lungs.
Fear -Or "the excuses" phase. During this phase, you know social media is out there and that you should probably get involved, but you're just too scared to try it. Some of the excuses I hear most often: "I'll jump in when I know what I'm doing" or "It just confuses me" or "I don't see how this service can help my business". Hint: Just like crocodile wrestling, you can watch it on tv, study it, even take classes, but its never going to be the same as jumping on the back of a real crocodile and just doing it!
Paranoia - Okay, so you finally decided to take the plunge. You create an account. Now what? As with all new things, a little bit of fear continues to nag in the back of your mind. "Am I doing this right?" "What if I piss off all my personal friends by talking business (or vice versa)?" "I don't know any of the terminology!" This fear of screwing up can be paralyzing. This is why some people never get past the -checking this out for the first time!- post.
Obsession - If you can get past the Paranoia stage social media suddenly becomes fun. Once people start connecting with you and commenting on your posts, the rush can be come addictive. This stage can be positive, the surge of activity can really put you on the map. You also may need to find a help hotline for your Social Morphine habit.
Comfort -Once the adrenaline rush fades, a regular pattern emerges of when and how you use social media. Perfect balance is next to impossible, but comfort comes very close. This doesn't mean that you won't slip back into one of the previous stages. In other words, once the social media cycle claims you, THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
I will add, however, that there is a stage outside of the five that some social media users fall into. The unfortunate post-stage:
6. Apathy - Apathy can creep into any relationship. You loose the spark and have to work to regain the love. It happens for lots of reasons: not enough time, not fun anymore, negative experiences... Unfortunately this reminds us that not every social media experience is positive, and it does take work. However, like any marketing strategy it should bee taken seriously. Besides, the reward tastes better after you wrestled a crocodile to get it.
Like a cockroach, MySpace continues to crawl forward even after its head has been chopped off. Yes, eMarketer shows us. TechCrunch predicted the fall of MySpace's empire back , and like vultures, we've all been watching. (Also, of note, , says Caroline McCarthy at CNET).
Sure, there's still thousands of people using MySpace, but its just not the giant it once was. Nowadays, MySpace exists mainly for celebrities and bands. At one point, businesses tried to make MySpace their space, but Facebook offered a much sleeker deal and so began the downward cycle.
Here are some of my thoughts on why MySpace is dying:
Poor Design - You've seen it. Clutter. Just pick a random page and its busy enough to cause early eye-strain. The navigation tools aren't user friendly and the interface just screams 90s. MySpace assumed that its connectivity out-weighed simple design.
Advertising - They could probably change the name from MySpace to AdSpace. Modern audiences want their ads to unobtrusive. MySpace made "LOOK-AT-ME!" obnoxious video ads famous.
Bathroom Wall - I once heard MySpace called the bathroom wall of society. Of course every chat room, forum or social website has people without decency. MySpace just made the news more often with them.
Younger Audience - Based on by Bob Hazlett of the average user age on MySpace is significantly lower than other social media sites. This audience has less money, more time and less... restraint. Many migrate to other places, like Facebook, after they "grow out of" MySpace.
Fluidity - Most social media sites rely on ease of use. The fact that each profile is so customizable often causes more confusion that personalization.
As MySpace takes its nose dive, I have very little remorse. The site will probably continue to limp along, and markets may even continue to seek a target audience there (musicians and teenagers) but most of us will move on to greener pastures.
What are your thoughts on MySpace? Sad to see it go? Hardcore supporter? Don't care either way? Why do you think its declining?
I realized after attending the Microsoft SparkStart event that I often repeat the same advice over and over again, just with a new angle. So instead of doing that today, I'm going to point you to posts I wrote over the last year that still make sense right now! Believe it or not, the social media game hasn't changed that much in a year. In fact, marketing as a whole hasn't changed that much, we just use a different medium.
So here are some posts that might be relevant for you today:
A lot of the truths of marketing still exist in the digital age. Are there any principles you use over and over again in your own marketing (online or off)?
Last week I had the opportunity to speak on a panel for Microsoft BizSpark's first event: . I sat on the Marketing Panel with two fantastic names you may know: and . I had a great time and every person I talked to said that they got even more out of the day than they expected.
However, though social media was spotlighted by the marketing panel we did discuss other ways to market. I want to share some quick thoughts that I thought should be repeated:
Consider your sales funnel: There is a gap between the intent to purchase and actual purchase, do everything you can to help people get through it.
Don't scatter shot: Focus your social media efforts, but make sure you grab your real estate with something like
Social Media Tip: Have the heart of a servant
Twitter: To quote Giovanni "its the shiniest thing out there right now" but know your target market, they might not use Twitter; go where your clients are.
Branding, branding, branding: Do this FIRST! Don't get on Facebook til your brand is completely ironed out.
Email: has not gone out of style and is still a cornerstone of any online campaign.
If you missed SparkStart, I heard that due to the overwhelming positive feedback, there will be more of them! Feel free to contact them at their website or their twitter profile:
No one is arguing anymore about the power of Twitter. After and the , Twitter has pretty much hit mainstream. However, its not often that a company gets to feel part of something even bigger.
We've done some consulting and design work for the , and run their account. The DCYR took a keen interest in supporting the - . Here's what WFAA has to say:
I got some time during the filming (which took way longer than I realized it would) to chat with about what he thought of Twitter, personally. He told me the potential for having twitter and traditional news work together was incredible and he was excited to be a part of it. We're excited to be a part of it too.
If you are interested in using social media to further your business or movement, Veribatim is offering a number of classes right now in the Dallas area and we'd be happy to send you more information: contact@veribatim.com
Ever since Facebook's little privacy policy backlash, more and more people have approached me with concerns about privacy. Who can see what you put online? How safe is your personal information? Anytime you put information on the internet, you take a risk. However, you can take steps to protect yourself and your secrets.
about a company called Rapleaf in 2007. I went and investigated this company.
makes its money by conducting research for companies interested in social media demographics. But what's more important, is that they offer a free service: showing you what information about you exists on the internet. We're going to walk through how RapLeaf works by showing you how to set up an account.
Go to the Rapleaf personal page and .
Make sure to verify your email.
Discover all the information about you that is open to the public.
Choose what information you want to share with RapLeaf.
Make sure to read the privacy policy, just because you've hidden your information from Rapleaf, doesn't mean that information can't be found.
If you want to delete something, you'll have to go back to the original site to change it.
If you sign up for RapLeaf, let me know what you think of them!
This is my very first Vlog. I've not done it for lots of reasons, but because I'm speaking more and more I decided to share it with you!
I've been looking for a simple analogy to social media for a while. Then I realized that most business people are trained at some level to network in real life. Social media uses those exact same principles, just online! So the point of this video was to compare offline networking to your online presence.
