If you think you can’t participate in social media, you’re wrong.
But don’t feel bad. I was right there with you for a while. Not in thinking that you couldn’t participate; just that it wouldn’t be worthwhile.
But I have three examples to share from today. Between them, they prove that any business -any business- can participate in social media and make it work for them. Meaning, they can generate and participate in conversations that people are having about them.
The first comes from an interesting meme on Twitter. When graphic designer Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, he began to deal with it by trying to make fun of what is a very serious situation: he started to blame his cancer for everything that went wrong. Ever.
Lost keys? Blame Drew’s cancer. Toast a little too dark? Blame Drew’s cancer. Long story short- He and some friends started to spread it around and it took off. Soon they partnered with the Livestrong Foundation, and they’re hoping to raise money by having others repeat the message.
So, I sent my (unfortunately snarky) tweet out to the world with the tag #blamedrewscancer, and I blamed Precious Moments on Drew’s cancer.
I have a dry-bordering-on-dark sense of humor. Recognizing that, @preciousmoment responded to me that she would take the blame, since it was for a good cause.
I was (kind of) shocked. The graceful way that they accepted someone (me) making a little bit of fun at their expense is social media at it’s finest. Their response was the textbook example of how to enter the conversation.
They found out what I was talking about. They talked to me in lighthearted way about it. They left it there. And I always thought they were evil. Apparently not true.
The second example is from Chris Brogan’s blog post about Glynne Beer-Flavored Soap. Here’s a product that lots of folks might feel has no story to tell. Not true.
Glynne’s has a blog, a facebook fanpage, and a twitter account, all acting as different tools to talk to other people. Are they hard selling their soap over facebook? No. So what’s in it for them?
Community. People are talking about that they’re doing, who they are, what kind of people might like their products, how their soaps are made, health and hygene, and on and on. Why wouldn’t you, as a business, get involved in that?
Plus, they’re from Monkey Junction, NC. That’s worth starting a company just to say that you’re from there.
Finally, I saw (and participated in) a contest on Twitter today to win an Amazon Kindle from Shurguard Self Storage. This company rents storage space, and yet they successfully used social media to get people to talk about who they are.
Not that they’re boring. Or that they shouldn’t be using social media. Just the opposite. They have a story, too, and they’re just using new tools and techniques (combined with old ones- a contest) to tell it.
My point is that social media is not some huge, complex, confusing tech beast. It’s a collection of really great, mostly simple tools that you can use to have conversations with people.
That’s it. What conversations are you having?
