1 Good Reason – Social Marketing

Earlier this week I wrote about how Marketer’s are ignoring the hidden ROI of social media in the 90/9/1 equation. Now I’d like to take another look at that equation from a slightly different perspective. In a Twitter conversation with Jonathan Tamayo I noticed that he said:

So I asked Jonathan why he said no,

This got me to thinking about how older people, like me, are using social media and how non-experts and general public use it.  Too often as experts, super users, early adopters, etc, we forget that for many people simply upgrading to a newer version of MS Word is a traumatic experience.  And as social media butterflies we forget that 90% of the people on Facebook/LinkedIn/MySpace/Twitter almost never post anything.  They are Lurkers, who enjoy reading about what others are saying.

So what could Jonathan’s dad get out of Facebook?  An awful lot.  He doesn’t need to be able to do anything but read his newsfeed to keep up with the family.  It’s called Ambient Awareness, and it’s an important aspect of the 90/9/1 concept that tells us that as social practitioners we are doing our work even when no one responds.  For most people social media is a way for them to develop ambient awareness of their circle of friends. 

Ambient Awareness is the idea that you become aware of the condition, the state of mind, the wellbeing of those around you without direct communications between you.  You are aware of their emotions, and feelings without even knowing that you are aware of them.  This applies in social media because we read the daily updates from our circle of friends and know what they are doing.  And that ambient awareness is very valuable to the person on the receiving end- the social media lurker.  I know that I like to see updates from my friends and family and they are important to me.  I miss them when they’re gone.

That’s what social media does better than any other technology people have developed before.  And that’s Jonathan what your 60+ (I’m in my 50’s) dad is looking to get from Facebook.  The fact that he isn’t a computer guy and he asked you to set him up with a Facebook page tells me that he’s looking to get a little of the Ambient Awareness for his family.  He’s most likely heard about it from some of his friends, his contemporaries.  And he’s looking to try it out.  And all he needs to do is lurk, he doesn’t need to ever update his Facebook page.

So that’ the other side of the 90/9/1 equation we marketers rarely think about.

This holiday season why don’t you set up a Facebook page for someone you love?  Just so they can lurk. It will be a gift they could truly treasure more than any other you could give.

Posted via email from ckieff’s posterous