truth

Social Media and Truth

April 22nd, 2009 | Author: Beth Harte

Okay, I’ll admit it. I am a huge fan of the show House M.D. Yes, I love House’s snark and repartee with his team. But what intrigues me the most about this show is that he cannot solve any of the mysterious illnesses that are presented to him and his team unless they find that one kernel of truth. How they find that truth is by digging through symptoms, testing out different theories and, finally, by forcing the unfortunate patient to fess up to a secret (no matter how minor) that they’ve been hiding.

Now, what does this have to do with social media you might be asking? Well, as marketers we hire often agencies and consultants to help us solve our marketing challenges…whether it be launching a new product or trying to figure out that one lucky campaign that will generate tons of buzz and leads. And in hiring agencies and consultants we pour out our marketing symptoms…this is the target audience, the target audience isn’t responding, this is the message, this is the approved message but it isn’t working, this is what has worked, this is what hasn’t worked, this is the problem from our view, etc. The agency/consultant goes off on their merry way to diagnose all the marketing symptoms and to try and solve the mystery.

But there’s one little issue…we haven’t told them our secret.

Typically, not telling our secret either ends up in a failed campaign, wasted budget and/or a fired agency/consultant (in extreme cases). But today, in our socially connected world, customers, employees, investors, analysts, bloggers, etc. will help uncover that little secret and it’s only a matter of time. And then…your secret will become public.

What’s the moral of this little House M.D. and social media metaphor?

Tell the truth. If you are considering utilizing social media as a marketing communications channel for your company, non-profit, agency (creative or government), the truth is your friend. Be sure to tell your agency/consultant the truth about all your symptoms (internally and externally). Otherwise, you aren’t giving them all the facts they need to understand to properly help. (And this is simple & good advice for traditional marketing as well.)

If your marketing campaigns are failing because your content doesn’t provide value to your customers, admit it. If they don’t work because the VP of Marketing or CMO doesn’t get interactive marketing, fess up. I could go on, but I am sure we all carry different marketing secrets around with us.

Secrets can sabotage and lead to…