Three things I learned at Social Media Marketing World 2019
I know this is late. Social Media Marketing World 2019 was a full three weeks ago and I’m just now getting around to writing about some of the things I learned. Well, three of the many things I learned.
This was my first time attending this conference and I had no idea what to expect. Would I be the oldest one there? Do I have any knowledge worth sharing with another attendee? (No and yes are the answers to those questions, respectively.) This is a conference about learning how to level up your social media game from people who have experienced wild success. It’s basically the equivalent of Beyoncé teaching a session on creating a performance that will break the internet.
So here is the short list of valuable lessons I learned at SMMW19. These aren’t revelations, but they are important ones to keep in mind when thinking about your approach to social media:
- Quality is more important quantity.
Remember back in 2009 when Ashton Kutcher was racing like hell to hit one million Twitter followers? It was a back and forth between him and CNN to see who would reach the never-before-achieved number first.
10 years and a billion Instagram users later, we find ourselves living a much different philosophy around social media followership. In a post-Fyre Fest social climate, the new goal for social focuses on the quality of the community you are building — not the quantity of the people in it. The new hotness is about knowing your followers, not just collecting them. The new social economy now values micro-influencers over mega-ones (or is it ‘macro’ ones? I never took economics.) Anyway, the bottom line is this: if you’re more concerned about status over substance, you aren’t likely to get very far. Remember, when it comes to social media: the currency is connection.
2. Customization over automation.
Raise your hand if you can’t stand when you post a little tweet with a few little hashtags and end up with 16 new followers who for some reason are all real estate agents or “reknowed speakers” (yeah, you read that right, REKNOWED — I’ve seen it with my own two eyes).
I’m raising my hand as I type this.
That’s really annoying. Just because a platform allows you to track keywords and automatically follow people who use those words in their content, doesn’t mean you should. More plainly: don’t. Please. For the love of all that is holy and pure: nothing feels more inauthentic than just following a person because they used the word house, or Rupaul or, I dunno, quiche or something. Plus, it’s weird.
“A customer with a smartphone in their pocket is on your marketing team.”
It’s not new news, but it sure is a powerful way to say it. The great things about social media are also the things that can cause some brands a bit of heartache. What social media offers is an opportunity for fans to connect with the brands they love, while also providing the same opportunity to offer “constructive criticism” (err, or something like it) to brands that could improve an aspect of their business.
At the end of the day, a brand is what other people are saying about you, so with every transaction (whatever that means for your organization: donor solicitations, an actual purchase, customer service interaction, anything customer facing), you are opening yourself up to praise or punishment based on the experience you are creating for your customers. That’s a powerful thing.
People are what drive social media. Sure, there are algorithms and data and all that. But it’s all built around people. Around connection. Around authenticity and relationships. That’s what makes social media a success. So think person over platform. Message over mass following. And go forth and be social.
