An Overnight Success, or Stuff I Wrestle With in My Mind

Do you ever find yourself standing at the microwave wishing it would hurry up and heat your food faster? Does the computer that was so fast when you bought it, now seem sluggish because it takes an entire minute to boot up?

The faster things happen, the more we are dissatisfied with how slow we perceive life to be.

We live in an instant society and expect immediate results. Just look at the sports news this time of year and you’ll see a revolving door of college and pro football coaches. Granted, there’s a lot at stake, but it’s rare to see a team work toward success over the long-haul. We want results and we want them now!

But the business culture is changing. There are no guarantees. What works for one company might not work for you. There’s no “get-rich quick” formula for overnight success.

I’m still amazed by how many companies offer to help me get “thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook fan!” They prey on marketers and business owners who desire to see results, and a positive ROI, fast. Really fast. Oh, sure it can happen, but that would be the exception to the rule.

The fact is, participating in Social Media (I think “participating” is a much better word than “using” or “utilizing”) isn’t an overnight proposition. In fact, it’s a lot of work. Relationships…meaningful relationships, are developed over time, not over night. It’s not a campaign, it’s life.

We (read: marketers) see people gathering in social spaces, on- and off-line, and we salivate. We see an opportunity and wonder how we can tap into it and monetize it. I think Douglas Rushkoff has done a great job of summarizing what I’ve been feeling for quite awhile as I watch various businesses and marketers try to figure out how to navigate the social waters, perhaps to find a Social Media magic bullet. His post on Mashable yesterday, Why Marketing Threatens the True Promise of Social Media, has really resonated with me.

Rushkoff says:

But thanks to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, social media has arrived as a justifiable expense for businesses looking to do whatever it is that’s intended to replace advertising. And as a result, people who should know better -– many of us who have some understanding of how social media actually works –- are busy working for companies who want to turn this social landscape back into a marketplace.

This isn’t about pointing fingers or laying blame. It’s about stopping ourselves before it is too late. We still have a chance for social media to generate the biggest change in how culture and commerce operate since the invention of the printing press.

It may sound trite, but we really do need to remember that the “social” part of “social media” is what is most important. And that’s why it takes time.

Many of you who are reading this post now are either peers of mine in the marketing side of things, or perhaps business owners. And Rushkoff addresses us directly when he says:

The real possibilities of social media, however, are quickly devolving to the limited applications of social marketing. In the past 20 years, I watched open source get reduced to the corporate-friendly concept of “crowd sourcing,” and my own concept of “viral media” get watered down to “viral marketing.” I refuse to watch the social promise of interactive media get redefined by those hoping to make a fast buck off our Facebook friendships. Not without a fight.

Perhaps I’m naive, or even quixotic, but as a small business owner and marketer, I agree with Rushkoff, and believe that the two can co-exist, but only if we marketers approach the social web properly. Social spaces exist for a reason: being social. As marketers we are guests in those social spaces, and we must act accordingly.

When I work with clients, I want to make sure they have realistic goals and expectations about what Social Media and digital marketing can do for them, and how that fits into their overall branding and marketing plan. And I do all I can to make sure they approach the social web with an understanding of how and why it exists and functions in the first place, and how and why individuals even bother to live their lives in these digital social spaces.

This is just me thinking out loud and wrestling through what I do, how I do it, and why I do it. And I’ve barely scratched the surface. Thoughts?

Tagged as: business, Douglas Rushkoff, facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube