CMN’s Six Rules for Social Media
What do the Obama campaign and Motrin have in common? They both utilize social media. The difference, however, is the Obama campaign has leveraged the power of social media for mobilizing its audience, and Motrin misfired by upsetting its audience. Both offer important lessons for us as we navigate the “Wild West” stage of social media.
The 2008 campaign and Motrin’s baby carrier ad were some of the examples we discussed at our recent presentation to the AIGA Boston on Social Media & Your Business. At CMN, we use social media to project who we are, how we think, and what we’re up to. We use it to tell our clients, prospective and existing, how we define thoughtful — because that’s what we strive to deliver — thoughtful branding and design.
There was some healthy debate among the participants as to whether or not social mediums like Twitter and Facebook are professional tools. One woman said Twitter allows her to learn a lot of new information in a very short period of time. But someone else questioned how much time it takes to use these tools. “Is it really productive?” he asked. Our response, “It depends on how you define productive.”
At CMN, we view social media as a way to build shared meaning among a community. And creating a shared meaning is about creating a distinct, compelling, meaningful brand. But it all starts with your brand. The brand strategy should address who you are and who you want to be. It should be relevant, unique and defensible. Your social media strategy should show your brand. The goal is complete transparency across every customer touch point: Internet, packaging, face-to-face, etc.
Our Top 6 Rules for Social Media:
- Be authentic.
- Strengthen your current audience and engage new ones.
- Connect. Give your audience a reason to engage with you.
- Be remarkable. Give people things on which to remark.
- Participate in other discussions, not just your own.
- Embrace organic planning. Have a plan, but be ready to adjust.
Remember, a social media strategy is only as good as the brand strategy from which it evolves.
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The question about whether Twitter, Facebook, and other online social networks are professional tools is a good one. An increasing number of people are using social media for business, so I’d encourage reluctant users to get familiar with them. I think they’re here to stay!
As for whether they’re productive, it depends on how you use them. I could definitely see how they could be a real distraction during the work day, but email and phone calls can also be distracting. It’s all about finding ways to keep the distraction at bay.
Judging from the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1079/social-networks-grow), which shows that only 30% of online adults ages 33 - 44 belong to an online social network, marketers looking to reach people in that demographic will have to continue to rely on more traditional media outlets in addition to social networks — at least for now!
Comment by Susannah Abbott — January 21, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
It will be interesting to see how reluctant users begin to get drawn into social networks. The adoption rate for email back in the early 90s was a fairly steep curve. As the business benefits become more obvious (e.g., networking, knowledge gathering, generating buzz) more people will buy-in.
Even my mother (in her 60s) is now following me on Facebook. It makes our weekly phone conversations that much more rich because she knows more about what I’ve been doing and working on.
Comment by revans — January 26, 2009 @ 4:18 pm