The “maybe” marketing mentality

Earlier today I revisited a YouTube video (the video is embedded below) of a talk Guy Kawasaki gave on gaining social media followers.

During the talk Guy gave an example of how Virgin America should use their social media accounts to promote Las Vegas instead of promoting themselves (this was a hypothetical example given by Guy).

Why would an airline want to promote a travel destination and not their own brand or service? Well as you already know, if a brand does nothing but talk about itself, you as the content consumer will unfollow the brand because you are getting little value from these self-promotional posts. Guy explains that Virgin America has a route from San Francisco to Las Vegas so if it succeeds in getting some of its followers excited about Las Vegas (by providing interesting content which is of value to their demographic) some of them may decide to fly to Las Vegas, and maybe they will buy Virgin Atlantic tickets. It is the “maybe” in Guys example that is so critical.

Your target market is living in a golden age

A good friend of mine once told me a story of how when he was in Vietnam, when ever he wanted to eat at a restaurant he would order one of everything on the menu. He did this for two main reasons. The first was that the price of each dish was so low that even ordering one of everything on the menu didn’t result in an expensive bill. The second reason was that it was just easier for him to order one of everything then to try and communicate with the locals that didn’t speak any English and end up with something he didn’t like.

The reason I tell you this story is because when it comes to consuming content online, deciding which brands to follow or even what to buy, we are all like my friend when he was in Vietnam.

The price of consumption is zero and thanks to social media, RSS feeds and other content management services, we all have a constant flow of content that is only growing in magnitude and becoming easier to access. In order for marketers to succeed online they need to adopt the “maybe” marketing mentality.

What is the “maybe” marketing mentality?

The “maybe” marketing mentality is having the mindset that your followers are simply “renting out their attention” to you and can move on when ever they wish. It is having the mindset that in order to succeed with social media you have to do it well.

It is having the mindset that the community that you have built up over months of hard work owe you nothing.

It is having the mindset that it is your job to provide value to these individuals with the hope that they will decide to spend their hard earned money buying what ever you are selling.

The marketer that has the “maybe” marketing mentality is posting high quality, useful content native to which ever social media platform he is using. He is avoiding common social media mistakes and is constantly experimenting to optimize his activities. He is using social media tools like Buffer, Social Sprout, Hootsuite, Swayy, Yotpo and others to maximize results and productivity. He isn’t afraid to try new things and go against the norm. He is a fighter, ninja, analyst and story teller.

Help the other marketers out there adopt the “maybe” marketing mentality by recommending this post.