I love this article, which I’ve been meaning to post since May. It’s from Business Insider, and it’s called, “Why I Will Never, Ever Hire a ‘Social Media Expert'”:
Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge.
Social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service. Say it with me. Repeat it until you know it by heart. Bind it as a sign upon your hands and upon thy gates. Social media, by itself, will not help you.
…It’s about relevance. It’s not about tweeting every single time your company offers 10 percent off on a thingamabob. It’s about finding out where your customers actually are, and going after them there. If you’re tweeting all your discounts, and none of your customers are on Twitter, then you sir, are an idiot. Marketing involves knowing your audience, and tailoring your promotions in specific bursts to the correct segments.
Social media, in my opinion, is more publicity than marketing in that it cannot be precisely tracked. No one knows what a New York Times profile or an NPR feature really does for an artist’s career. Sure, you can watch your title rise up the charts on Amazon and iTunes if an album is featured on All Things Considered, but long-term, what is it really doing? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. Being “good at social media” is, very simply, being good at relating publicly: an artist, an artist’s publicist, or an organization is communicating directly with its public and its potential public. Today, we’re all little mini-publicists for what we care about. “I liked this movie” “watch this YouTube video” “read this article.” Say what it is you want to say to your public, whenever you want to say it to them, and forget about long-term social media planning. Strategize loosely, but mostly go with the flow.
This video has 27 million views. With that in mind, can any of us really claim to know what works or doesn’t work in the wild and wooly world of The Internet?
Oh yes: that’s a cat with a Pop-Tart body galloping through space with a rainbow train and a flicking tail. 27. Million. Views. Now tell me your internet strategy again?
Randomly, on July 23, classical music’s favorite son Alec Baldwin started answering his followers’ questions on his Twitter feed:
This has continued until one hour ago:
The questions just keep coming, and Alec Baldwin just keeps answering them:
So here we essentially have an interview that takes place over three days. The artist can answer any question he wants, tell his fans exactly what they want to know about him, and not worry about being misquoted. Who needs a team of publicists pitching a Vanity Fair profile when you can be interviewed by 219,447 people who are already interested in your answers? Alec Baldwin spent three days answering questions about his favorite cigars and sandwiches on Twitter. Don’t post your tour dates, don’t retweet your reviews, don’t try and sell your CD: just interact with people who already care enough about you to follow or friend you and see what happens.
I’m not saying Alec Baldwin doesn’t need or want a Vanity Fair profile, and I’m not saying his movies or TV show don’t need to be marketed. It always cracks me up that, say, the iPad 2 is marketed, and some classical artists and presenters don’t feel they need to market. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO MARKET. The final Harry Potter movie was going to sell ~a bazillion tickets: they could have spent not one dime on advertising and done Just Fine. And yet, every Manhattan corner one turns has SOMEONE WILL DIE and IT ALL ENDS HERE posters with dirty Harry running through the woods and a logo that one might mistake for that of a new printer. If Harry Potter needs to market, so do you. If Alec Baldwin can Tweet directly to his fans, so can you. This is not a need-based, linear design.
I leave you with this, and I urge you to watch to the very end:
Everyone knows you don’t keep bread in the fridge. You keep it in a paper bag. Doofusses.
I don’t know why more celebs don’t do this sort of thing. If I were in their shoes I’d do a bit of it here and there, it seems like fun.