:: social media should spark real life inspiration ::

lately I've been "faning" facebook communities of brands, stores, even restaurants that I like. Why am I doing this on my personal fb page? because their feed comes into my wall and I often get updates, funny notes and exclusive leads on happenings and style in their respective communities. I look, I click, I read, I may enter a contest and I am pretty much done. I hardly every go to the store or visit the site from their fb page. does my contest participation measure success?

And how does this translate to real life?

I have been wondering the real reason why there are these social media communities and after reading an engaging article about "social media success" I can see I've been along the right track. the purpose of these platforms is to a) connect with like-minded people and b) inspire REAL LIFE situations with these brands that are positive. I can say that A) is happening but is B)? And what is more important for these real brands - people talking about them (A) or people experiencing them (B)?

The article, written by Augie Ray, is questioning the difference in succeeding in social media marketing (that would be A) or social media (that would be B) ???

The answer is B. Or it should be. So why are more brands not doing this but rather focusing A - or their marketing strategy. What about their actual product? Yes, it's popular and smart to have a fb community and, yes, it's popular and smart to engage, share, connect. But it's equally  important for your community to realize the brand instead of talking about how cool a contest was. I do believe there is a C) option - something of a hybrid of the two and I am looking forward to seeing that become the norm. More to come...I am sure.

Read the entire article on the Forrester Marketing site right here.

Share