Don’t Swat that Fly Play in the Mud

Have you heard the expression, “Throw mud at the wall and see’s what sticks.”? Sometimes it will stick, sometimes it won’t and sometimes you just end up messy but sooner or later it will work. Don’t give up because playing in the mud can be tons of fun! I think of social media like this. There are things I have personally tried when blogging to monetize my blog that just did not stick. Maybe it was an affiliate program, a partnership with a brand or even with a blogger or network. It could be as simple as a WordPress plugin that did not work or the latest and greatest SEO tip to increase my Google Ranking.  After three years I have a sense of what will stick but I’m open minded and sometimes I have to try again and again.

When companies engage in social media it is the same thing. You cannot be certain that your application or widget will go viral. The office YouTube video you made might backfire or it could  be the best thing you’ve ever done for your brand. We can have well designed strategies and use case studies, examples and past success to guide us but the word, “social” can be unpredictable. Like going out to a social dinner with friends and having this social event turn sour from a misunderstanding or turn celebratory with an announcement of good news. We have expectations but social situations involve humans and we all know that there is a lot of predictability and unpredictability with people.

Social Media Strategy Failure

Yup, if you have a flop and you’ve spent some money – move on with your disappointment, learn from it and then evaluate what it was you hoped to gain from the experience in the first place. Sometimes we create a Facebook application and expect wonders from it but it goes no place. What did you want to do with it and did you expect it to go viral and design it this way or simply create it as an addition, to educate, to brand and to share.

Personally, I’ve had this happen. I’ve worked on a Facebook application that I do not feel has gained very much traction for a company and I’m not proud of that but I can own up to it. I can also say it was created to educate and inform not go viral and I feel it does this. I also see where it can be improved and what I would do better next time. I’ve worked on a YouTube campaign that had hardly any entries and for the life of me I wanted to cry and hit someone because I was so frustrated. The entries we got were good though and it did not cost very much money and it stays in the search engines – meaning it could always organically take off.

Don’t Be a Coward

I have been approached by great campaigns and wonderful ideas and then legal sits down and it is like a fly swatter killing a fly – guts everywhere. So much for that idea! I’m not saying the legal team are cowards but what I am saying is that killing a fly that is not a fly doesn’t do anyone any good. Sometimes they’re just not familiar with the insect (follow my analogy people) and they swat it away or kill it and when it was something that would have saved their garden and helped them prosper! Bloggers and social media can be scary because it means unpredictability and loss of control and yes, you can get bitten. You can also reap a lot of great things and if you need examples I’ll point to Ford, ecoStore USA, ebay and White Cloud and Hanes to name a few.

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