For the first time this week I heard someone talk about social media and they actually talked some sense. I like people that talk sense, they inspire me.

Anyone following the Webfaced tweets this week will know that the TFM&A exhibition (Technology for Marketing & Advertising) was in town. However, it was not during a seminar at Earls Court that I heard such sense being talked. Actually, all TFM&A did was to demonstrate why few people will earn the right to be called a social media expert (even if they declare themselves to be one). This post is dedicated to someone who was NOT at TFM&A, Chris Buckley, who heads-up social media consulting for the social PR agency, Headstream.

I can’t get through a day without hearing the constant sound of tweeting and trying to get through an evening without being poked to death by a friend is impossible. So why do I say that there is no such thing as social media? Well, because I wanted to make a sensationalist statement to inspire you to read this post. There is such a thing of course, however, “social media” is a term I loathe because it leads people to place too much emphasis on the ‘media’ part and not enough on what is ’social’ about it.

Let’s define social media. Literally it is media that encourages people to interact socially. It is this media that enables people to develop groups and form communities. Social media brings people together and in the commercial world it allows people to interact and live more closely with brands and products.

In reality though it isn’t the media that brings people together at all it is the content that is shared across it. If we all woke up tomorrow to find no tweets, an empty Facebook wall and no contacts in Linkedin (a sort of online 28 Days Later type affair) what would happen? Well the (social) media is there so we are all still connected and part of this online society aren’t we? What do you mean there is no content? What about the media? Don’t forget the media, someone please think of the media!

So, people tend to get hung up on the media (I think you get my point!) and as they scramble to get on the twitter train they forget what they are on it for. They either don’t engage with anyone for months or at the other extreme they tweet a million “special offers” and deeplinks to products nobody even wants. The ‘media’ part is misleading people into thinking that whatever they broadcast on these platforms is going to be lapped up by the entire world because just by being published on twitter it is worth reading.

This is as naive as saying, “We can make a TV programme about whatever we want. It doesn’t even need to make sense. In fact, let’s not really give it any thought and just get it done. People love watching TV, I read it in Marketing Week, so if we put it on TV they will watch it. And love it. And love us. And buy our stuff”. Brilliant. I hate you. You should retire.

Content is king, we’ve been screaming it at clients for years to help change their pre-conceptions of SEO and yet somehow people using social media still don’t get it. What good is it broadcasting across every media in the entire world (both online and offline) if what you are broadcasting is utter rubbish? There is no point, in fact, it will make people hate you, or think you are weird. And I’ll hate you, but I hate most people.

Looking around even this small office I can see Tweetdeck open on the machine next to me and on my own I have multiple Chrome tabs open with Wordpress, LinkedIn and YouTube open. Oh, and I’ve got the Facebook app open on my iPhone for good measure. But, I am using these media platforms for a different reason than the person sat next to me. The content we eat up via this media varies dramatically. Even grouping social media together can cause issues since I use different ’social media’ sites for very different purposes. I do not look to form business relationships via content on YouTube, likewise, I do not turn to LinkedIn during my coffee break to entertain myself. I use social media in many different ways yet at the centre of all of this is the content.

You want to make a name for yourself? You want to establish your brand? You want to sell products? Fine, but I’m not going to follow your tweets just because you are on Twitter, I want you to entertain me God damn it! You have to work for my friendship, say something interesting and I promise not to de-friend you. Bore me to death and talk crap all day and I will do exactly what I would do if you were my friend in real life, I’ll never call you.

So, it’s back to basics. Just like any traditional advertising strategy you need to do your homework. Evaluate your market, learn what they do in their spare time, learn where they hang-out online, understand what they like to consume when they are there. Once you know all this you know what content to broadcast to them.

There is such a thing as social media, its bloody straight forward and you can start using it today. Its free, it takes a few hours and hey presto, you are suddenly one of the cool kids. But if this is where you think your project ends there really is no point setting it up in the first place. You need to concern yourself with something far more important than social media, you need to be thinking about ‘Social Content’.

Posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 3:01 pm. You can leave a response below...