I’ve been reading a lot lately about social networking. Is it a fad or is it here to stay.
I’m happy to announce it is here to stay. At least for a while. I do believe it will be changing though. As I recently posted about being on the fence about twitter, I’m still sitting high up on my fence. I have however jumped all over the facebook, linked in, delicious, and other web 2.0 advancements. So why am I resisting twitter. Mainly cause it’s is very much like the View for me right now. Sure you like all the women hosting the show, and the banter is fun to watch but at some point I want them to slow down and actually look at an issue in depth. I’m already not a fan of all the media shows where people just spout off about topics without giving equal time to opposing view points. I’m a big proponent of hearing all the facts not just the ones the person who happens to have the show chooses to share to try and point my thoughts and decision or judgement in their choosen direction.
I do however believe there will be a back lash from all the downsizing of information sharing. If I only have 140 characters to share my thoughts, well lets face it I’m a little too wordy for that. Does that mean I’m not going to do my best to make sure I’m not left out of the direction marketing is going. No way. I’m going to continue to read and learn and utilize what I can.
I’ve been getting into discussion about energy and relationships and community. One of the common themes is that there is a hierarcy of intimacy and connectedness. And as much as all the marketing people are going to push back against this and even fellow coaches. The highest level of energy exchange between two human beings is in person. All the rest is less than. Does it mean it doesn’t have a place? By all means no. I still call my parents to touch base even though they live 4 hours away. It just isn’t the same as being there touching hugging arguing whatever the case may be.
But back to the networking. We as business people want to have the biggest impact we can. So we look for ways to get the word out. How can I push information in front of people so they will call me and buy my product or service. The trends in marketing are moving away from pushing information or outbound marketing and moving in the direction of inbound marketing. What is inbound marketing, you ask? Great question. It is presenting a concept or sharing an idea that people are looking for. So it is blogging about a topic that others are already looking to find. But having your content be there easily accessable when they are looking for it. It’s about packaging and creating engagement. No longer are we wanting news presented to us, we want to have our voices heard also. That is why all the shows are letting you write in and share your thoughts with facebook, e-mail, phone calls, twitter. They want you to feel like your part of the process. American Idol lets the fans choose who moves forward, yes there are judges but every person who calls in to vote will be watching the next night to see if their person gets saved from elemination. What a brilliant engagement model. American Idol does a great job at inbound marketing and engaging their audience. First they start out with people having to try out. So if your not chosen you want to see who got picked over you. They bring back past performers to plug their new albums which only makes the show more credible in the public’s eyes about how you become a star now. It’s no longer about working for years and years hoping to some day be discovered. You just go sign up and show off your talent.