Social Media Marketing Deconstructed

Small business owners, particularly those who have been in business for a while, often approach social media as a marketing tool with a degree of skepticism.  We see this in our presentations on the subject; some audience members sit with arms crossed and a bit of a frown on their faces.  It doesn’t take a PhD to recognize there are some barriers that need to be overcome.

We begin by deconstructing the phrase social media marketing and telling the audience to ignore, for a moment, the word in the middle; media.  And by promising, they know more about this than they think.

Marketing is Marketing

“Let’s begin with marketing.”

At the root of everything “marketing”, including marketing with social media, is the necessity to understand the customer, understand what a business can do for the customer, and communicate in terms that will resonate with the customer.

A bit of work in practice, but conceptually this is nothing new.  And something that most small business people comprehend intuitively – or quickly come to understand if they expect to stay in business. 

“Does this make sense?” we ask.  Nods, generally, around the room.  Marketing is marketing is marketing, and the basics have been in place essentially forever.

Humans are Social Animals

“Now, let’s talk about the first word; social.”

Ever since we metaphorically lived in caves, humans have been social animals.  We have depended upon each other collectively for our survival.  Clans, tribes, families, faiths, nations, friends, and probably numerous other manifestations throughout history attribute to our social nature.

An individual’s survival has depended upon the ability to quickly size-up a situation; friend or foe, fight or flight, safe or dangerous.  Before we left the cave each morning, we scanned for tigers, traps, or treachery.  By now, it is hard-wired in to our social make-up.

“We all know how to be social.  We’ve been doing it all our lives.”

A few arms unfold.  A few frowns relax.

“When you first meet someone, or enter into a social situation like a party, what do you do?  You size them, or it, up.”

Nods.

“When someone speaks to you, or asks a question, what do you usually do?”

“You answer back.  You wouldn’t stand there, stone-faced. That’s being social – you know this.”

More unfolding and relaxing.

“When you have a question about something, who do you ask?”

Now we prompt for answers.  Specific examples come back and we stop when we hear this: ‘someone we trust.’

“That’s right”, we say.  In the family, clan, tribe – someone we trust.

Dare to Reconstruct Social Marketing

So, social marketing would be leveraging the trusted relationships a customer (or potential customer) already has to help explain in terms resonant with them how your business can help them.

“Make sense?” we ask. “Pretty simple, right?”

And behold: the arms have unfolded and the frowns disappeared – sometimes even replaced with smiles.

“See, you know this stuff.  Told ya’.”

Concluding, we add:

Don’t worry so much about the “media”.  Media come and go.  They all have their specific rules and requirements, like column-inches in a newspaper ad.  That’s not the important part.

“Okay to continue?” 

With nods and relaxed attendees who understand why we market using social media, we proceed to show them how.