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Less Push, Less Noise

by Bilal Jaffery on April 8, 2009 · Comments

in web 2.0

"Leave it to the advertisers – and those with the old ad model thinking – to take social media and push out messages. It’s becoming a "listen to me" model. A contest for attention. A numbers game."

Spike Jones’s lamentation rings true. The last thing we want is for our new modes of dissemination to become as the old: tired, cumbersome, and invisible.

"So let’s learn from traditional advertising and not create more noise. Not play the numbers game. And not push, push, push. I know it’s hard. I know it’s in our DNA to want to be the center of attention and have everyone look at us, but it’s not necessarily the right thing. And if you try it with Social Media too, guess what? People will just change the channel."

Amen, brother.


The full story at: Brains on Fire Blog

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Tagged as: new media, social media, traditional media, two way conversations

  • Great Video! A lot of people on the net with E-Businesses should watch this! I wish more people would wake up to their artificial marketing attemps in Social Media. Let it do what it’s intended to do without jamming some product down people’s throats every second.
  • Mark, a great point and I certainly use social media to learn more the great promotions and deals that are available from the vendors. This is just a brainstorming exercise at this stage, let's imagine, if the vendor that is always sending me offers was offer Mr. Customer a customized, personalized offer -- just for Mr. Customer. Imagine, if the vendor actually listened to my requirements, and then offered a solution that solved that problem.

    Social Media allows us to have those mass 2 way conversations and is certainly the direction web media is moving towards.

    Chris Brogan, a notable Social Media evangelist writes about his visit to our IBM HQ last year.

    "Conn Fishburn from Yahoo gave me a great analogy for thinking about social media marketing when we spoke at IBM’s Research Headquarters in New York last year. He said, “Bring wine to the picnic.” In this case, Conn was talking about the idea that if you show up and try to market, people will be frustrated and will shut you out. Instead, if you bring something of value to people, they’ll be more likely to accept you."
  • Mark S
    I wonder if this isn't overstated, a little. Aren't there going to be plenty of cases in which people "follow" someone's tweets or "friend" someone's Facebook just for info on products or promos or deals - in much the same way they, say, subscribed to newsletters from those entities? If I start following a company, rather than a person, on Twitter, it's not because I want a conversation - it's because I want product and promotional information faster and more frequently than I can get it through email. In fact in a case like this unsolicited conversation may be as big a turn-off as unsolicited merchandising - if I start following something expecting product info and instead am being polled, or questioned, or otherwise drawn into a conversation I wasn't looking for, I'm just as likely to "change the channel."
  • Bilal,

    This dovetails well with your post.

    Cheers!

    M.M.
  • Spike, I wholeheartedly agree that the success of social media lies in two way conversations and social media marketing requires a non-traditional mindset. It is about building long-term relationships, not short-term spam.

    100% in agreement.

    Keep in touch bud.

    Bilal
  • Thanks for the shout out, Bilal.

    And don't get me wrong, I think SM is a beautiful thing and can be used as an effective tool to build deep, lasting - even meaningful - relationships. But I'm afraid that sometimes, with certain groups, it's hard to break free of the traditional advertising mentality of "capturing eyeballs." It's just not going to work - especially with this new medium.

    Keep on keepin' on.
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