Do You Have The Balls To “Do” Social Media?
If you are going to run a successful social media campaign, for a real life client, there are some things you are going to have to come to terms with. Depending on your current state of mind this may involve you growing a pair.
Firstly, the last thing you want to say to a client looking to do social media is yes. Really the very last thing you should ever say to them is yes. If you want to be a social media manager/guru/flunky you may as well strike that word from your vocabulary all together, shall we do it now…yes there doesn’t that feel better?
Now you need to figure out what you are going to say to them, do you have your big girl pants on, because you’re going to need them…You’re going to say NO! That’s right you’re going to be a big meanie and tell the client what they are going to do. Now what I’ve done to make this easier for you is put together some practice phrases. Stand in front of your mirror in your bed room and repeat the following until you can say it without crying, OK?
NO you don’t want a twitter account Mr client, your audience is made up of 21 year olds on low incomes, that is not a key twitter demographic
NO you don’t want a facebook page Mr client, your industry is not one people like to talk nicely about and opening a facebook page just gives them another chance to bash you.
NO Mr client no one wants to read a blog about rubber table leg ends
All done? Has the weeping stopped? Good, because you’re not done yet. Now step two is to tell them what is going to happen, did you see the key phrase there, Tell that’s right, you’re going to be in charge. So some more practice for you these ones you have to say until you sound like you really know what you’re talking about, off you go
You MUST have something interesting to say Mr Client
You MUST strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of today’s news, not last weeks news Mr Client
You MUST engage your audience how they want to be engaged with Mr Client, not just talk at them
Well done, you have now managed to get to the point where you should be allowed to start thinking about managing a social media campaign. Whether you actually manage to keep the client for more then the next 2 hours, well that’s up to you.
Good posting there Sarah!
To be fair to ‘Mr Client’, the world of social media can be confusing and scary to dive into, like when you have that first argument with your girlfriend that makes absoltely no sense but is the worst thing you’ve EVER DONE.
Equally it can be very exciting and you want to do it all right now, like when men buy new things and don’t read the instructions becuase they’re TOO EXCITED!
There’s a great presentation on slideshare on this very subject which is both funny and useful for anyone looking to dive in to the old social media game:
@stuartpturner
Yeah I’m feeling quite tough love today so thought I would take it out on our lovely blog readers. Glad you sweetened it up with a nice slide show for them.
@Yoshimi_S
I love a bolshy woman about the place – we all know you’re a big softy on the inside though
Oh I love this! So true it hurts.
Can I add one?
You MUST give this sufficient resource (either internally or allocate sufficient budget to do this externally).
Social media costs, and right here’s where you start payin’ …in sweat.
This is all very true, and something I’d add. You MUST be consistent and complete with your social interaction.
There is no point trying to engage Twitter, FB, Digg etc if your website is totally 1.0 , and all the ’social’ content is buried far from viewing. Users will come to your website from a social website, and quickly conclude your tweet/digg/stumble etc was merely an attempt to leverage the community for no other objective than commercial gain. They won’t visit again, they wont retweet, and they’ll probably bury you too.
If you want to do the social channel – a very powerful and worthwhile channel – you have to give it a proper commitment.