blog:

Over the past few years, my brethren in the advertising and marketing world have embraced the term “Social Media.” When you break it down, it’s not a bad name; “Social” is about people talking to each other and “Media” is a 70-year-old term that has evolved to describe different forms of advertising. So, Social Media is an endeavor that seeks to encourage people to talk to each other about brands as a method of advertising.

It’s part of human nature for professionals to develop industry-specific jargon and acronyms in order to more efficiently communicate with each other. The Social Media field is no exception. Sometimes this new terminology does help us talk to each other.  However, more often (intentionally or unintentionally) it confuses the heck out of everyone else.

The worst jargony gobbledygook offenders intentionally try to confuse outsiders in order to convince others that Social Media is so complicated they must hire “experts” to figure it out. Within large CPG organizations, I have personally witnessed in-house experts disseminate as much jargon as possible with the intention to confuse bosses and reinforce their specialized value to the organization. It doesn’t have to be that way.

At my own personal risk of violating the magician’s oath of advertising 2.0, I will now reveal the illusive first step for anyone seeking to build their brand and sell more stuff through Social Media.

Ready?

Here it is: Facebook.com.

The unbelievable statistics of Facebook.com continue to astonish. The numbers on Facebook’s press page detail over 400 million active users, half of whom log in every day, and 30% (about 120 million) of those active users are in the U.S.

The truth is that for the most part, Facebook is Social Media and Social Media is Facebook. I know agencies love to show you a PowerPoint slide that has the Facebook logo along with a couple hundred other social networks, like Bebo, Bolt, Orkut, Tumbler, Blogspot, Blogger, MySpace, Yammer, Yelp!, and FourSquare. Not to say that all of the other social sites have no relevance, but for the vast majority of brands, the fundamental, baseline social space is Facebook.

Get your brand on Facebook, do it well and then other opportunities on platforms like Twitter and YouTube will become more understandable to you. So, Step 1 is to get your brand on Facebook.

No. Wait a minute.

Actually Step 2 is to get your brand on Facebook. Step 1 is to get YOU on Facebook.

YOU, yes you. This does not mean have one of the young people at work set up a page for you. When someone else does the start up process for you, you lose all insights into the user experience. Trust me, that page will become a dusty ghost before you know it.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Go to Facebook.com and set up your own profile. Use your own name, your own picture and your own e-mail address. Most importantly, use your own fingers on your own keyboard and mouse to do it.
2. Click around and find friends. Choose people you know. Invite them to be your friend on Facebook.
3. Click around and find brands you recognize and that appear to have a lot of activity and “Likes” (don’t forget Brighton Agency). Click “Like.” Now you will be able to see what they are doing via your newsfeed.
4. Visit your page regularly (for at least 20 minutes at a time, three times per week).
5. Follow Steps 2-4 for three weeks.
6. Call, e-mail or even better, send a Facebook note to us at Brighton.

Now you are ready to talk to us, and we can show you how you can build your brand and more importantly, sell more stuff with Social Media.

And we promise, no gobbledygook!

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