Over the past few years, I’ve worked on, read about, and attended events that are all social media-focused. I can safely say we’ve made tremendous progress as a collective group (i.e. PR, ad, marketing, digital), but no one’s “there” yet. We haven’t got it all figured out yet. Even the companies who have done an excellent job aren’t there yet, although they’ve set quite the mark for the rest of us, and given us all something to shoot for.
Everyone wants to set themselves apart in the social space. They joke about clients just wanting to “get them a Facebook and Twitter page,” when new tools are coming out all the time. Case in point: This week’s tool du jour Quora. Not sure what the value is yet, but it’s spewing out all over my Twitter feed faster than Lindsay Lohan returning to rehab.
People want to be trend-setting and innovative, constantly trying the newest platforms in hopes of getting some acclaim. People say Twitter and Facebook might be good, but everyone is on those channels. It’s more than that. So they put efforts in elsewhere…
…but let’s back up. Everyone is on those channels? Well, doesn’t that mean that’s where your customers are?
The numbers alone are reason enough to stay on (and focus on) Facebook and Twitter:
The ‘book:
The Twitter (as of September 2010):
They may be the standard and safe, but let’s face it: If your customers are in the boomer demographic (55-65ish), why on earth would you be on a social platform such as Quora? No offense to my boomer peeps, but they will most likely think Quora is a grain. I mean, they still think Twitter is something about a bird.
Not all brands can stray afar and still do well. Most brands are traditional with a more traditional audience that is on the social platforms their friends and family are on: Facebook and Twitter. Think about it: Successful social case studies like Southwest, Comcast, Ford and Old Spice were mainly done across Facebook and Twitter (and our good friend YouTube).
So stop trying so hard and do what’s best for your brand. Once you get a sense of what your audience likes, complains about, and questions, then it’s time to get innovative. And perhaps that innovation can happen right on Facebook and/or Twitter.
Stay thirsty and keep tweeting, my friends.
I think Facebook will likely be replaced before Twitter, even if it doesn’t happen anytime soon. People seem to have more problems with Facebook generally, from site redesigns to privacy problems. Eventually this will spur someone to make the next big thing. I think its unlikely that the next big innovation will come from Facebook. If you look at companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple, you will see that they have had some massive social networking failures over the last year, like Facebook’s new messaging system that was supposed to be the replacement of G-mail, or Apple’s attempt to make their own Twitter with Ping, or Google’s whole Wave debacle. The next big thing will happen like Facebook did, replacing MySpace and giving us a social networking platform change that we didn’t know we needed.
Tim: I like your thinking on this. And I have to agree. The birth of Facebook was how it became so huge, so another Zuckerberg in training has bound to come up with the next level of social networking. But you’re right, too many wonky privacy settings and platform changes is bound to drive people to the next big thing. But, it hasn’t happened yet, and it will take a pretty important platform to do so.