Social Media is what it is. In my own words, content that gets shared. Good content sometimes go viral, and bad content, should just never see light.
In the not-so-new age of marketing, where there is much emphasis on "Social Media", most companies sometimes forget that content is king. Good content or a good product, whether digital or not, is easier to market, if not, sometimes do not require any marketing at all. Most of the people in sales would probably agree. Although some might say that a really good sales person will probably be able to sell anything. Then again, possibly yes, but probably with more packaging, fancy commodities and time.
Question to ask: Do we have a good product to sell in the first place? What is it? How are we going to market it online? How do we measure it's effectiveness? Is it really indeed below-the-line? What have we achieved thus far?
While hiring the 'experts' to take this 'untrodden' path seems like a good solution; be it the fact that it is genuinely more cost-savvy or easier to lay the blame if it eventually doesn't work out, it is important to know that numbers and figures should not be the baseline of Social Media.
Likes, Fans, Followers and anything else that substantiates reach or "interaction" with figures is an easy spell for the social media agencies; not saying that most are, but not saying that most don't take the easy way out either. Creating fake accounts and fake interaction is a piece of cake that can be made with a script these days. Identities will need to think deeper.
While shares can be created as well, it's important to create content good enough for oneself and the target audience to share.
The only time I probably created something that went decently viral was during the haze period to poke-fun of the situation. It was very much targeted at the situation everyone was in, and to really have a good laugh with what seemingly was bizarre yet possible.
The way I see it, the important factors are: 1. 'Recency'/timeliness, how recent is your content to the event 2. Ease of relating to; simplicity, is it easy for the reader to understand and relate? 3. Appropriateness; a right joke at the wrong time is just wrong in anyway 4. Usefulness, will sharing this content benefit anyone? Help anyone? Is it important information? Or will it brighten up someone's day?
Any and everyone these days is and are a Social Media Expert, we curate content that we feel we can relate to and is appropriate and best able to represent the profile of our identities. Some people go as far as to script the right content or to remove poorly received content.
It is important for big identities to note and act likewise.
Validation is important, but to validate oneself or an identity with figurative factors such as Likes, Followers or Fans is a sad phoney, self and society driven entrapment. Self-validation should take precedence, and is important for identities to find the balance between commercial value and identity integrity. The worst I've seen are individuals and identities that have embarked on a staged validation, whether self-staged or not, both are equally degrading.
Why would one choose to live in "The Truman Show" whether the director is oneself or another?
My side of the story? I've seen the light and felt the flames of social media, it is a double-edged sword, and whether you're representing a corporate identity, celebrity or just simply yourself, I'lll briefly conclude that it requires a good swordsman to wield.
So if you're new to all of this social buzz, take every posting you make online whether publicly or privately as an official e-mail to the whole wide world. Once you hit send, you hit send.
