Social Media: So Easy a Caveman Could Do It
At an American Marketing Association meeting in Austin a number of years ago, I heard a man speak on the change in the communication world. Do I remember his name? Sadly enough … no. But if someone knows the guy, let me know. I will give him credit for this great idea and link to him of course. Okay, ethics done. (Kidding)
The Circle of Life
His major point was that communication has come full circle. Like almost everything else in life, how we convey messages and stories started out in the form of story telling person to person, and it seems to be headed back there. Now this gentleman made this point in about 2005, which in Internet years was decades ago. He was right then, and I am hoping some of the businesses present that day took note to what he was saying. So going in a broad but general order of how communication has changed over time …
Caveman Communication
In the beginning of communication, cavemen and human that developed after (many years after) communicated by storytelling. Think The Odyssey and campfires. The Bible is a collection of such stories and revered by many as God’s Word. They were stories passed down person to person, generation to generation. There were no books, no editors, not blogs. You trusted the story because it is all you had to go on. Who said Zeus wasn’t Hercules’ father?
Writings Abound
Once people began writing down stories, stories began to transfer a little better. Until the printing press though, these writings were for the rich and educated. Many writings were in Latin and other “high” languages that the masses could not read. So people still relied on authority figures to tell them what was real and true. When it came to everyday life, the masses told each other who the best butcher was, who the best matchmaker was, and so on. The spoken word had more impact to the common consumer because there was no other way to transmit stories among the masses.
Printing Press
The invention of the printing press opened up the world to stories and … pamphlets. Politicians and stores could finally let people know about their issues/stories. Newspapers abounded with current news and stories, and books were written with the old tales, and some new ones. This was the golden age of the printed word. Think about the days of Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities. Local businesses and some national ones began to understand that the printed word could be used to drive business.2
Mass Media
After that, mass media really took hold. We got radio, television, books, newpapers, magazines, advertisements, everything was printed and published. This changed how stories were told and how we got our news. Over the years it was the advertisers and publishers that held the power. They told us what to want, what to buy, and what to care about. From politics to soap, the power was in the hands of publishers. Consumers took in the knowledge they were given. Word of mouth still existed but on a much smaller scale than before. This was the time of “Keeping up with the Jones’,” people wanted what was popular, and that wasn’t always local.
New Media and Power Shift
Then the Internet arrived. At first it was supposed to “kill” brick and mortar stores, but we soon figured out that the Internet would compliment traditional consumerism, not overtake it. But there was a shift that few saw coming. It was the shift of power back to the consumer. Over the past hundred years, the amount of advertising began to overload people, and new technology was allowing them to edit out much of it.
Social Media: Back to Caveman Times
Today people get to choose what advertising they take in. The power is back in the hands of the consumer, and the spoken word is back in power, only now it is written and digital. Companies no longer hold all the cards. Television and newspapers still have large circulations and impact on our culture. Advertising in traditional media still works (despite what some may say), it just doesn’t work as well. This new world of commerce is one of more balance than ever before.
What works in today’s world to grow your business is allowing and influencing word of mouth. Going out of your way to help your customers, going that extra mile will ensure that your customers talk about you, online and offline. This combined with a well integrated marketing campaign will allow your business to fire on all cylinders.
There is no one trick to social media marketing, or the perfect marketing campaign. The best marketing campaign for you is one that reaches all of your target at the moment that they are thinking of your products or services. This could be any combination of mediums. As a marketer, it is your job to find that best combination. Social media is not the answer, it’s part of the answer. And it’s not difficult, it is conversation participation. Keep your brand consistent and be available. That is the secret. So easy a caveman could do it, and they did.
6 responses to "Social Media: So Easy a Caveman Could Do It"
What I find interesting, especially when I attend geek culture events like PAX (http://www.paxsite.com/), is that I (and many of my peers) have effectively isolated ourselves from the mainstream culture provided by non-long-tail media like television, popular music, and movies. While it remains true that many video games are produced by large studios (at great cost), popular games are played by millions, and many games are produces as movie, book, and television tie-ins, the culture reflected in those games is highly self-referential and open to viral influences. World of Warcraft as merely one gorilla of an example is crammed with references to various internet memes, from lolcats to the more classic All Your Base.
To tie this back to social media, I think it’s important to remember that the current generation of power users is for the most part immersed in subsets of this cultural niche, and are generally statistically outliers when it comes to being valid predictors of “real world” mass markets.
Firstly what a great post. I pick up on your last point about keeping your brand consistent.
I have heard it said that “brand is your promise kept” or something similiar.
The threat to any brand is that Social Media provides consumers with the opportunity to broadcast widely their dissatisfaction if they feel a company didnt deliver their promise.
The opportunity though for a brand, is that through Social Media monitoring they can at least become aware of it, and hopefully do something about it. Pre-social media it such dissatisfaction was still spread, by word of mouth, but identifying it was an issue.
I think you nailed how to approach it from a brand perspective in your second last paragraph
Great post. I thought it was going to compare smoke signals to twitter, but it was much smarter than that.
Kate, great post. I like the ‘circle’ analogy.
Eric
Judging by the fact that 40.5% of posts at Twitter are pointless babble, a chimpanzee can be hired to do social media marketing.
Cam – thanks so much, I am glad it struck a chord! Yes, social media is allowing companies to participate and respond to any issues people might have. This new world of communication is unique in that consumers have great power, but now companies are aware of part of what is being said. It’s a unique opportunity to grow their businesses like never before!
Micky – yes, most of what is on twitter now is spam, but I think that utilizing social media correctly does involve an intelligent human brain. This post was more about how communication has changed rather than how easy social media is.
Jeff – Thanks! Yes, it turns out there was another post a few days before with the same title that was more about how social media is too easy, but this was more looking at communication patterns. Thanks for reading!
Eric – Thanks!