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Understanding social media

With traditional media, advertising is “very simple”: pay to put your products directly into people’s face, whether they want it or not. On the opposite, while it is true that social media is probably a cheaper way to advertise and can be a lot more effective, people have to “accept” your products for it to work properly.

Social media is a cheaper and better way to advertise if you have a quality product or an original product worth talking about. That’s the whole point of using social media: you take the bet that by having a social presence and that by providing new ways for your customers and potential customers to interact with you, they will try what you have to offer and eventually spread the word on their own network. Social networks are only platforms giving a voice to regular people: information does spread faster and on a larger scale, but it is driven by real people and they won’t spread the word about your products if they’re not worth it.

Work on your products before killing your business on the Web

The worst mistake a business can make is to go social too early. Going social with crappy products can only kill a brand, there’s no way it’s going to help it. Whether a business offer high end products or cheap products is not the question, there is a niche for all kind of products and businesses. The real question is: how can you make your products “special” enough for people to talk about them?

Let’s face it, a lot of businesses sell the exact same products. There’s a lot of car companies selling more or less the same cars and a lot of coffee companies selling more or less the same kind of coffee.  So, the first step is to stop thinking your products are unique, unless they REALLY are. For most people on the Web, you’re just another coffee, car or web hosting company, nothing else. So, how are you going to have people talk about your products if for them you’re just another company?

So far, we have two important questions to answer, all related to your products:

How can you make your products “special” enough for people to talk about them?
How are you going to have people talk about your products if for them you’re just another company?

So, it all comes down to your products being just like your competitors’ products and your business being just another business for most people. Of course, the best thing would be to have every business work on their products and make them unique, but unfortunately it’s not always possible. So, if you can’t work on your products, how can you make them unique?

If you can’t make your products unique, create a unique offering

Well, if you can’t make your products unique, work on a unique offering around them. Take Volkswagen for example with their new Routan minivan. There are a lot of companies selling minivans, but Volkswagen managed to create something unique around their minivan with a “Baby maker“:

That’s right, you take two pictures and the “baby maker” will make a baby for you! It is obviously targeted at women and you can imagine how easy it is to spread on twitter, Facebook or whatever social network. This is a great example (thanks to @shoesandbooks) of a unique offering around a product that is not so unique. Then, people work for you and spread the word.

We don’t have money

I agree, not all businesses have the money to develop a baby maker. This is where creativity comes into play, but yes, sometimes the best strategies have a price.

Once the word spread, people will try

Once the word start spreading, people will try your products and this is exactly where having quality products matters. You got the people to try your business because of your unique products or unique offering, but now you can’t afford to offer a crappy product or service. If you don’t meet people’s expectations, they simply won’t talk about you.

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