I’ve been talking a lot lately with some Social Media Marketing Guru’s from #usguys and #smmeasure and reflecting on a statement someone made to me:
“Social media is about building relationships; it’s about knowing your customer and becoming friends with them.” – Everyone on Twitter
It occurred to me, in my consideration of this statement, that some people that choose to represent themselves as my friend may not actually know me at all. To test this theory, I recently conducted an informal Facebook experiment in which I changed my birthday. On March 9, 2011 at 10:26 AM, I updated my status:
“If i listed my birthday on facebook as tomorrow(which it's not) I wonder how many of my "friends" would still say "Happy Birthday" to me...we'll call this social experiment #1-A "Let's See Who Knows It's Not My Birthday Tomorrow" and social experiment #1-B "Let's See Who Leaves a "Happy Birthday" Comment Despite Todays Status. Shhhh...don't tell!”
I continued to change my birthday every day for four days. The results are in and are impressive:
- 36 people responded with birthday praise-this is 6.8% of my network. On my real birthday (December 3), I got 75 similar posts (14.1% of my network).
o 32 of these are people I actually know personally including:
§ 9 people I have celebrated my birthday with in the last 2 years.
§ 3 co-workers (one whom sits in the office next to me and ate my treats when it WAS my birthday, actually sent me a singing e-card at work).
§ 3 women I have had a “relationship” with.
§ 4 Fraternity Brothers.
§ AND 3 members of my own family, including my oldest sister!
- To be fair, 13 people or 2.4% of my network (including 7 family members and 2 co-workers) publicly called out that it was not, in fact, my birthday.
In a world where your “friends” aren’t even your friends, how are you supposed to befriend the customer?
The reason people (whether they admit it or not) are afraid of Social Media is not because of the change itself; rather, what the change is destroying. Customers are people, not “followers” and Friends are Friends, not “friends”. We need something personal, something real. Social Media makes them feel that they are losing that personal relationship. When done right, social media can be the perpetual motion of marketing. But, in order to do Social Media right, we must reflect on the things we are attempting to preserve with this change. We must bear in mind the traditional values of genuine human existence; Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship, and authentically represent ourselves, our brands, and our companies as a reflection of those values.
**continuing to ponder what this means to me, and ways to improve my social media experience. Advice welcome…**
Great post! Too many businesses see social media as a way to 'connect to the masses', but fail to see the masses as anything more than a number. If they don't treat social media as a way to actually connect to people they are losing out on the relationships they initially propose.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your next birthday! Which is............. ;)
I was kinda waiting for a point in the blog that said "BTW, DON"T comment on this blog" just to see how many people did. Brings up another blog post, where people 'read' blogs just to add comments but don't really read them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Aaron, for the feedback. And my appologies for the delay in responding! You are absolutely right about people "reading" blogs. It's like everyone is in such a hurry to get recognition/notariety that the purpose of social networking is being defeated. What good is being "twitter famous" in the professional world if no one is actually getting anything from your content? Many like-minded individuals out there, perhaps we should focus on sharing together vs. trying to "win" followers?
ReplyDelete