I am sure that you all remember the good old cartoon from Bugs Bunny, the Tortoise vs. the Hare:
During the entire race, Bugs Bunny is trying to cheat, cut corners and sabotage the Tortoise in order to win the race. The Tortoise on the other hand just runs the race and stays the course. When all is said and done, the Tortoise wins and proves the point, Slow and Steady wins the race.
Social Media implementations are very similar in this approach, or at least successful ones are.
In the more recent past, companies were getting involved in Social Media and launching online communities because their competition was, or because it was the ‘Thing to do, and they followed the concept of “if-you-build-it-they-will-come”. While that approach may have worked in the past, it most certainly does not work now.
People have so many place that they can go to converse and interact with others, that they have their pick-of-the-litter when it comes to Social Media. Have you done your research ahead of time, or have you rushed into the space, hoping that by cutting corners you will beat your competition?
Which do you think that you are at the moment? Have you built your application or Strategy? Are you reviewing other applications (Twitter, Facebook) and doing your research up front before you jump into the game, analyzing your audience ahead of time? Are you setting yourself up for failure before you even begin?
Social Media Strategy, Moderation & Management Musings 
5 comments
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December 11, 2009 at 1:50 pm
andrewchilvers
Interesting debate.
But should we be looking at this from a different perspective? What if we acknowledge that the technology works, but the problem involves content generation. A lot of social media is, to put it bluntly, dull and self indulgent. Debate often involves technology rather than the people using it.
What would you think of a managed network that works for and with local communities, using video blogs rather than written blogs to tell the story? People talking directly to people about their lives and aspirations. Take this on a local level, parish, neighbourhood, district, county, employ a community manager and get people networking. Use simple video technology to help society’s disadvantaged and dispossessed.
Build-it-and-they-come doesn’t work for most of the time, so build it with them, take them along for the ride and actively help it grow.
December 11, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Jay Baer
Early adoption isn’t necessarily the wrong move, it just causes you to fly blind while best practices and success metrics are shored up. I’d prefer the steady and cautious approach, trying to tie social media to existing marketing tactics.
Nice post.
j
December 11, 2009 at 2:11 pm
mikepascucci
andrewchilvers,
Content is often the stumbling block, which is where a nice phased approach comes into play. Seeding content is very important, you do not want to “throw a party with no food or drinks”. Also, there is a need to be flexible with your approach, as you never know where your members will take your community. You may have had a different thought process than your members, so you should definitely build it with them, and not have a rigid approach.
Jay,
I am with you, flying by the seat of your pants can only get you so far, it will eventually catch up to you and get you in trouble.
Thank you both for the comments.
Mike
May 3, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Latesha
No more s***. All posts of this qautliy from now on
May 3, 2011 at 10:27 pm
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