Mack Collier, social media guru of sorts, wrote up a quick little post about the inadequacy of the oft-repeated social media advice of “Just be awesome!”
Well, social media strategy it ain’t, but unfortunately it’s something that needs to be drilled into peoples heads. Especially clients. Clients who ask questions like “Can we use some sort of trick to get 10,000 Twitter followers overnight?” or my favorite “I heard from my friend who knows a guy in Brighton Beach who says he can get us X million followers/links/cites/etc. for $100. Can we do that?”
Too many people are convinced that there is a trick to get a great social media campaign and that you can attract a large, dedicated following by either throwing money at the problem or using some quick-fix approach. There isn’t, and as social media professionals we need to keep spreading the word on this. “Be Awesome!” isn’t a strategy, but it is a key component. You have to make great content, and you have to keep making great content, and you have to do it for a long time. So while I sort of agree with Collier, I think dismissing it as nothing more than a sound-bite is a little disingenuous. People need to be reminded time to time that social media is a long game, and the only way to win the long game is to consistently put out things that are of genuine interest to your target.
“Create good, interesting, and engaging content that is tailored to your desired follower demographic on a continuous basis over the long term with a strong focus on long-term and short-term goals and targets that are reinforced by targeted calls to action” is a lot harder to tweet than “Be Awesome!” though.