Social… What?

I have always been naive about social media. I confess that despite my understanding of sociology I cannot for the life of me get a handle on why people would declare their most private moments to a world wide audience? Then again, that’s what my folks called ‘The Generation Gap’.

I acknowledge SMS potency and I also understand its possible consequences, and in that regard I view it with deep respect. Do I use it? Yes. Do I use it as a diary? No. Do I think it is a positive? Yes, under the right circumstances. And the big one – is it commercially advantageous? Absolutely.

If you’re not finding a way to use the world’s largest, most popular media, you’re missing a huge opportunity. As an old marketer screaming to get out of an old body and into a new one, if I can use it anyone can. So I want to encourage, cajole, even demand that if you’re in business and you’ve dismissed it as a fad – don’t. Discover its secrets, learn its structure, create a strategy for it and get free recognition, brand awareness and prospects. Here’s an example I read about recently.

A bakery in a large country town, tweets their special sweet breads everyday at 10am and 3pm. One ‘tweetie’ said she waits every tea break for the tweet, asks the staff what they want, charges down to the bakery and gets morning and afternoon tea. The article showed an example of the tweet, it read.

“Just taken out of the oven, hot and delicious buns. With clotted cream and a coffee you’ll come back for more.”

The case study went on to say the bakery has a 32% increase in sales over the previous year, prior to its use of Twitter and Facebook.

And if you want an old bastard’s rationale for social media’s success. It’s this: Social media is now time – a now happening media delivering the message to you personally as it happens – to me, it’s that simple.