Cash in with time or burn out in no time –
or worst still get drowned in the everyday time-consuming habit of
using the social media without any strategy. These are the realities
facing every social media user – heavy or light – and wisdom requires
that one engages in the different platforms to the level one is getting
certain accrued results and gains corresponding to and measured by
increasing number of likes, comments, views and following.
Why? In the final analysis, the social
media is nothing but a tool! As useful, effective and vital the social
media could be to everything about our world in the 21st century, it is
still a means to an end and not an end in itself. Any unguided endeavour
– no matter how substantial – that makes social media an end has the
tendency of turning it into a time sinking hole!
For clarity, and hopefully for someone
out there to get it once and for all, let’s for a minute strip the term
“social media” bare by first taking away the adjective, social, and be
left with the noun, media. Then, we are talking about media platforms
here, with a good number of characteristics similar to the different
forms we have always known: T.V., radio, prints etc.
The social media therefore makes the user
a Media Producer of his own ideas, essence and intents. You become the
Larry Izamoje of your own contents. What a great leveller Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others are proving to be. And what an opportunity to showcase your stuff if you use these platforms to your advantage!
Maximising these platforms is what many
social media evangelists out there – even the giant social media
companies themselves – don’t really emphasise (it’s not their primary
business what you use their platforms for, whether mere fun or much
gain). Like many multi-level marketing schemes that have come into
existence and gone, some of them outright scam, the early adopters that
quickly get round the system usually prosper a lot more, capitalising on
the hard earned cash brought in by the majority late adopters who most
probably jump into the system without knowing how the system really
works.
It follows that if there is any clue of
business (and there should be) in your involvement with social media,
you must know what works on the different platforms. You really won’t
maximise your aim by posts and tweets that are undirected and
uncoordinated – without some underlying notion behind them. (Now, if all
that excites you about Facebook is some mindless gist about your last
meal or just reuniting with some high school friends, this article is
not for you.)
For the business-minded like me that
wants to have some good returns on the investment of time spent on the
social media, you may have come to the realisation that the social media
presence and involvement don’t automatically equate to gain. Bringing
back the adjective, social, into the (social media) definition which
connotes common, sharing and exchange, you will have the social media as
a form of media that is an interwoven marketplace. It is a welcoming
jungle where you are free to express yourself but to really thrive, you
must be influential and powerful and that power (regarding your outputs)
is simply spelt S-T-R-A-T-E-G-Y.
It is pertinent to realise that, while
social media boasts huge potential audience, perhaps more than any form
of media before it, the attention of this audience is drawn in ten,
hundred or thousand directions in just one hour of engagement and it
will take something extra for one to stand out enough to hold their
attention – something to bridge the gap between being lost and being
adored (massively liked, favourited, commented on) by targeted prospects
– for huge benefits.
And that bridge is not just constructed as a result of the social media boom! It has actually been, long before Facebook and co. came around – and has been used over and over for big profiting. Take for instance, Larry Izamoje of Brila Sports,
an all-sports radio station in Nigeria. Izamoje came into the limelight
in about the mid 90s performing a 15-minute sports programme on a radio
FM station, OGBC2. And what life he brought into it, reporting
fresh tidbits on sports with such appeal and flair no other sports
presenter in the country had ever showcased. It happened to be the time
when the Super Eagles (the country’s national soccer team) were at their
best and there were lots of buzz around sports particularly football.
Guess who everyone was listening to 8.15am every day?
For him, the 15-minute sports talk was
not an end in itself but a means to an end. There is a bigger picture of
owning an all sports radio station. Izamojoe was only using the media
platform of the 15 minutes sports talk to build a brand worth promoting
with so much following such that advertisers and other stakeholders
could not ignore him. Within a few years, the media buzz around his
personality had been strategically channelled towards achieving his
dream. In 2002, Brila Sports Radio emerged, servicing sports
loving Nigerians. And according to Izamoje in one of his articles just
before the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, “the Lord of heaven has
been smiling on us (him and Brila) since then.”
Izamoje’s phenomenal success ought to be
less uncommon now with all the social media options available. Contrast
the rate of air time on radio (OGBC2 with already built audience)
which he had to pay with the effort it takes to build a ready audience
and following on free social media network (which you will have to do),
and you realise both costs cancel each other out. It means any
individual, business or entity in the 21st century can ride on the
social media – the same way Izamoje did the radio platform – to
Destination Success. The social media used effectively therefore is not
just a plus for business or the business minded, but really could be a
landslide in influence, reach and advantage – for some great profit
along the way.
Evidently, regarding marketing in the
21st Century, content is one major gap that must be bridged. While
common individuals, for one lousy reason or another, can be on the
social media just for the fun of it, business minded personalities,
groups and organisations must invest in packaging contents that will
sell their brand on the social media platforms now in vogue, or else,
make a lousy job of their overall marketing campaign. The content gap
must be bridged through essence well drawn out, showcased and delivered
by a functional concept. This is the strategy that works!
–Omisore, a writer/content marketing strategist, wrote in via mdomisore@yahoo.com, Twitter: @mdomisore
punchng.com