I want more. Like us, Follow us, + us, watch our Youtube video, Klout it, Pin it, AR this, QR that, retweet etc. Every brand is now more or less on social media. But I don´t get why 90% of them are. And what do they need likes and followers for? And more importantly why should we like or follow them? Watching TV, commercial break. 90% of TV commercials either talk about how insanly great the product is, or try to be funny. Why should I buy your product? Because you make a boring sit-com in 30 sec? Because your roll-on is 12% bigger than your competitors? People are not interested in brands. Only a few loyal fans are. And key for growth is getting more people to buy - and buy more. Alas you need to communicate to people who are not really interested in your brand. Who really do not care about what nice things you can say about yourself be it on mass- or social media. So why focus on building more and more Facebook likes and Twitter followers. Why create another TV commercial that focus on product feats or being a little bit more funnier than the others. Why not try to instead focus on helping me with what I´m most interested in? No, it´s not only about usefulness. It´s not only about creating digital solutions that help i.e runners to get better at running or airline passengers to book a seat next to a stranger based on similar interest through LinkedIn or Facebook. This is meaningful stuff. But I want more. I want serendipity. I want stuff I didn´t know I wanted. I want to be amazed. I want to entertain. I want to click on cows. I want beauty. I want help. I want to help. I want to get to know new people. I want to strengthen my realtionships. I want to be someone. I want to belong. Help me with this and you will resonate. You will create social currency. I will talk about you both on- and offline. I will talk to you. I will join you. It´s not about advertising in massmedia or activating in social media. It´s not about mobile or tablets. It´s about why we are in the market. And what role those tools can play in making the life of the consumers better. Maybe we should be in the business of helping people to listen to what their heart is saying they really want and help them with pursuing this. To be bold, find a purpose and lead together with the market. Instead of creating irrelevant noise/tactical disguised participation/narcissistic introvert interactive/ psychopathic look at me rubbish marketing aimed at the self-interested individuals/sheeps in hope it will spread like the bird flue. For behavior to be contagious , it has to operate within a trusted network. Where you can only be invited in. It is the rest of us that will either adapt or reject what we encounter that really matters in the spread and ideas through populations. And the rest of us is 3 billion new participants in the media landscape. To create a mass reaction. To earn a big share of popular culture. To be talked about. Which is crucial for gaining market share. You need to do two things.
- Give people something to do and someone to do it with. Activate! (social media, events etc)
- Tell people what you do and with whom. Advertise! (TV, digital, in-store etc)
But what´s most important is creative passion. The tools for conversations/stories, activation, is social media and advertising formats. But the criteria for success is what´s being made. It needs to be meaningful enough to become a social currency. So it needs to be based on what people are driven by. Find a meaningful purpose. An ideal. Act on it internally. Start empower people by activating - and growth will follow.