001: Is Social Media Marketing… Dead?
A BRIEF INTERLUDE
It’s 7.36am, Friday 22nd October 2021, and I am sitting down to write the first article of ‘The Natives’.
The idea for ‘The Natives’ has been growing in my mind for several years now. It has been the topic of discussions with my mentors, as well as my trusted advisors, and it is in part fuelled by the joys and challenges of setting up and running my own business; from failure to profit and (hopefully) beyond.
But really, ‘The Natives’ is a place for me to record my ideas, thoughts and experiences in realtime. I want to share those ideas and experiences with people like you, who are interested in what I have to say. My intention is to help you on own journey and you can think of this like a journal - the kind that might have been written by an explorer heading up an uncharted peak.
I hope that you can take lots of useful ideas from my journey which you can implement into your own journey. Even better, I hope my thoughts and ideas provide a catalyst for you to have your own.
I hope that these entries can help you to find the words for the feelings that you’ve always had, but haven’t been able to articulate. And I hope that the words contained in these records can help you to live and work in line with your own intrinsic characteristics, values and vision - irrespective of your background, nation, creed or financial standing.
So take a few minutes and enjoy, the first article is below.
ON TO THE MAIN EVENT: Is Social Media Marketing… DEAD?
Content (with a title like the one above) can often be accompanied by an extreme view one way or another.
The idea of this approach is to try to be divisive, bold and controversial. To get somebody’s attention and to have them read more. In other words, to make someone engage with us, our business or our cause.
At it’s core, we want to be heard. As human beings we want to connect with people and we want whatever we have built to be successful. Often, this comes from a place of very good intentions; most of us believe that our product, service or idea has the power to improve people’s lives (and to make people happier).
But there is a barrier between us and our goal: How do we cross the chasm from obscurity to popular success?
THE PARTY WHERE EVERYONE’S INVITED
Social media is an attractive tool for trying to get our idea to spread. There are 2.89 billion active users on Facebook (link), 1.4 billion on Instagram (link) and 2.9 billion on Tiktok (as of June 2021) (link). If you want to get to as many people as possible, so that you can sell to them, there isn’t a more attractive way of getting to that volume of people with the power of just a few clicks. Or so it seems…
Further to this, the idea of becoming famous on social media is extremely attractive. And for those that have reached the dizzying success of fame, it seems like they have got to that point effortlessly. All we want to do is mimic their approach and find the perfect system (or quick fix) to garner a similar level of success for ourselves.
And why not? To be popular on social media gives us opportunity, it gives us credibility - and who doesn’t want to be popular?
But here lies the problem - there really is no system for success that can be plucked from one individual and applied to another.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Obviously social media is not really dead. The dizzying profits and advertising revenue generated by global tech companies pays dividends to that. What I am asking here is whether our list of priorities is in the right order. And whether there are more important activities that should be higher up on our list.
The figures I quoted above illustrate just how popular social media is. Every single day, business owners and the general public are posting in enormous quantities. Would you believe, 456,000 tweets are posted every minute? (Link) That’s an enormous amount of noise for anyone to keep up with.
Social media is still a useful way to get eyeballs on your business. It certainly gives you an opportunity to distribute your message to a group of people if that’s what you want to do.
But context is extremely important here. Although we may appear to be connected to millions of people, really we’re only connected to a very small proportion of them. Our social network is, in fact, a closed group of a small number of individuals. This group can increase or decrease in size, but we essentially have a room that we operate within. If your room isn’t supportive of your cause, then you’re probably in the wrong room.
Likewise, if you have influence and power, you can far more easily cultivate a following of people that want to follow you (and be like you). And I am talking here about influence and power at all ends of the scale. Someone with influence and power in a small geographical area can foster a strong following over someone that does not.
But emulating the rich and famous, or those with influence in your community, is a fool’s errand. Yes we can put out posts like these people, but they have something that the rest of us do not. They have influence and social proof that is broader than the content they post online.
So how does the small business owner cross the chasm of obscurity to success? How do they build a following of millions of fans? And how do they use that following to make lots and lots of money?
I have an important question for you at this point. My question is:
Are you:
A) Looking to be famous, or
B) Looking to build something truly exceptional. Something inherently special that improves the lives of your customers every day? Something that leaves the world in a better place than how you found it?
Although it seems like a silly question, this perspective really is important. Because it guides whether you are doing something for you, or whether you are doing it for the people you seek to serve. It also reveals whether you are in it for the long term or whether you are looking for a quick fix.
I’d argue that social media could be a very, very small part of your marketing efforts (if you wanted it to be). Yes it’s important (and I’ll be discussing how I think it is important in future articles), but I believe the focus and attention we give to social media could be better spent in other areas.
Just think:
What could you do to improve your product or service beyond the wildest expectations of your best clients? What would that mean for them?
What could you do to invest more into the experience of your paying clients (rather than investing in people you’ll never meet or have an opportunity work with?) What impact might that have?
What could you do to connect with the people that truly care about what you are creating (rather than standing and shouting at the ones that will never be interested?)
How many other ways can you work on building your business by taking your focus away from social media? (Seriously, how many other ways can you think of?)
And finally, rather than seeking to get attention from people and hold them against their will, how can you earn it?
If these ideas resonate with you, then you’re already in the right place. You will have lots of exciting content and ideas coming straight to your inbox for as long as you want to be here.
So stay tuned for more. But for now, be you and do good.
James
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