So, Facebook messed with your business page today and you’re bent. Just one more sign that you still don’t get it. It’s not about business. It’s personal. And until you get that you won’t make meaningful connections.
Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh but here’s the deal. The guy running your marketing department wants to make social media work because “everyone is there” but he hasn’t come to grips with the real reason social media exists. There has been a cultural shift. Our society has moved from the Information Age to the Participation Age. And the participants are in charge.
Selling is no longer an informed sales rep versus an uninformed buyer. Prospects and customers have access to information, too. And most of it comes from sources other than you.
Marketing is no longer broadcasting messages over open air. Prospects, customers, patients and members are subscribers to the information they want and their friends influence their preferences.
This is all so much bigger than your Facebook business page. Heck, it’s even bigger than Facebook. It’s about your approach to doing business (yeah, you’re still in charge of that). But you’ll have to pin a few new adjectives near your brand promise starting with open, approachable, and conversational. It may not be easy but it will be personal.
Let's get personal. I'm on Twitter @timbigfish and at www.facebook.com/timcnicholson
Facebook and The Super Bowl
This weekend hundreds of millions of people will gather in family rooms and around party platters with smartphones in-hand and the Super Bowl on the big screen. And Facebook will be there, too. It will be part of every TV ad and it will be the most used App (Twitter running a close second) on your phone. The game is a magnet for connection. Facebook is magnetic for the social engagement it enables. People are drawn to each because people are drawn to people.
Connection is a human imperative. Any event or technology that enables it thrives. The Super Bowl, an event with national holiday like status, thrives because via television everyone is there. Facebook thrives because via affordable anywhere technologies, everyone is there.
Harvard Business Reviews says, “Facebook enables (connection) better than any other social network.” And it’s found its way into the soul of our mobile devices. (Install the Facebook app on your iPhone, for example, and you'll see its features integrating themselves mysteriously throughout every function of your phone.)
Just look around the den on Super Bowl Sunday and watch the people that you know connect with people you don’t but could via the Facebook friend finder. People simultaneously present and absent courtesy of their smartphone app.
As Facebook has grown it has become less a website and more an extension of ourselves in the same way that the telephone was for our grandparents and cell phones were for the next generation. It’s also changing business in ways that most people can’t get their heads around -- because they see it as a technology or a platform for making announcements and doing transactions.
They miss the listening. They miss the engagement. They miss the inputs and innovation. The business guy wants the metrics for something that can no more be measured than the number of ripples from a pebble thrown in the sea. He fails to see it for what it is; the way we connect.
Speaking of connections, would you please pass the nachos?
Oh, and get back with me on those metrics. There are some and the results are going to blow your mind like a safety's hit on the opposing team's wide receiver.
Connection is a human imperative. Any event or technology that enables it thrives. The Super Bowl, an event with national holiday like status, thrives because via television everyone is there. Facebook thrives because via affordable anywhere technologies, everyone is there.
Harvard Business Reviews says, “Facebook enables (connection) better than any other social network.” And it’s found its way into the soul of our mobile devices. (Install the Facebook app on your iPhone, for example, and you'll see its features integrating themselves mysteriously throughout every function of your phone.)
Just look around the den on Super Bowl Sunday and watch the people that you know connect with people you don’t but could via the Facebook friend finder. People simultaneously present and absent courtesy of their smartphone app.
As Facebook has grown it has become less a website and more an extension of ourselves in the same way that the telephone was for our grandparents and cell phones were for the next generation. It’s also changing business in ways that most people can’t get their heads around -- because they see it as a technology or a platform for making announcements and doing transactions.
They miss the listening. They miss the engagement. They miss the inputs and innovation. The business guy wants the metrics for something that can no more be measured than the number of ripples from a pebble thrown in the sea. He fails to see it for what it is; the way we connect.
Speaking of connections, would you please pass the nachos?
Oh, and get back with me on those metrics. There are some and the results are going to blow your mind like a safety's hit on the opposing team's wide receiver.
Tracy Morgan Loves Your Work
I recently received a handwritten love note from a customer. She raved about working with our team and ended her thoughts with “I love Bigfish.” It got me to thinking. What if every customer was as passionate about their experience with us? What would that look like? How do we create it?
The customer’s point-of-view is the most compelling. It’s a more dynamic story than the one coming from the marketing department. It’s real. Maybe imagining what that might look like can help us create a plan to achieve it. Play along with me. Let’s pretend that we’re hearing about a product or service experience from Tracy Morgan. He is the hilarious star of SNL sketch comedy, the sitcom 30 Rock, a writer and movie star with the February 26 release Cop Out. What if Tracy were thinking about these three businesses:
Dunkin Donuts. To some it’s a donut shop. But, it has so much more growth potential when Tracy says, it’s the fuel that gets me through my day. After that Dunkin Donuts isn’t just for breakfast anymore.
How about The New York Times? The self-promoting purveyor of all the news that’s fit to print. The paper business is dirty ink on my fingers but then I hear Tracy’s voice in my head. He says, NYT has the 411 on everything worth knowing. This frees NYT to deliver info to key advertiser demographics in any medium they choose. Tweet me the news, please. Text me the headlines. Or, maybe there’s an app for that.
Or, how about Tracy the suburban home owner? To him John Deere isn’t just the maker of lawn mowers. In his acceptance speech for lawn of the month he was overheard to say, John Deere is my yard’s daddy. Or, at least that’s how it goes in my mind.
What would Tracy say about your business? How can you create an experience worthy of such a passionate response? We think it starts with understanding the culture, knowing how to optimize technology to be where the customer is, and then allowing them to experience the brand in a way that only they can imagine. And, Bigfish has a strategy for that. You're gonna love it!
Write to me tim@gobigfishgo.com or follow me @twitter/timbigfish.
The customer’s point-of-view is the most compelling. It’s a more dynamic story than the one coming from the marketing department. It’s real. Maybe imagining what that might look like can help us create a plan to achieve it. Play along with me. Let’s pretend that we’re hearing about a product or service experience from Tracy Morgan. He is the hilarious star of SNL sketch comedy, the sitcom 30 Rock, a writer and movie star with the February 26 release Cop Out. What if Tracy were thinking about these three businesses:
Dunkin Donuts. To some it’s a donut shop. But, it has so much more growth potential when Tracy says, it’s the fuel that gets me through my day. After that Dunkin Donuts isn’t just for breakfast anymore.
How about The New York Times? The self-promoting purveyor of all the news that’s fit to print. The paper business is dirty ink on my fingers but then I hear Tracy’s voice in my head. He says, NYT has the 411 on everything worth knowing. This frees NYT to deliver info to key advertiser demographics in any medium they choose. Tweet me the news, please. Text me the headlines. Or, maybe there’s an app for that.
Or, how about Tracy the suburban home owner? To him John Deere isn’t just the maker of lawn mowers. In his acceptance speech for lawn of the month he was overheard to say, John Deere is my yard’s daddy. Or, at least that’s how it goes in my mind.
What would Tracy say about your business? How can you create an experience worthy of such a passionate response? We think it starts with understanding the culture, knowing how to optimize technology to be where the customer is, and then allowing them to experience the brand in a way that only they can imagine. And, Bigfish has a strategy for that. You're gonna love it!
Write to me tim@gobigfishgo.com or follow me @twitter/timbigfish.
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