“I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
This famous quote, from one of the Talkies’ most famous comedians, got me thinking about the future of social media. How so? Well, it’s a social media law – from whence it came, no one knows – that recruiting for your social media campaign must be as inclusive as possible. Anyone should be able to join in. You might select who to invite, and ask them via targeted media using profile or behavioural data. And when they arrive – whether via your invite or any other means – you do everything you possibly can to usher them in. In fact, there’s a developed industry focussed on refining the recruitment process to minimise drop-off. However, this seems slightly counter-intuitive to me. And that’s when I remembered Groucho’s quote.
Of course, the arguments for recruiting as many fans as possible for your social media campaign are manifold. For one, each new member may be a potential customer, if your media is working as it should. For another, each one comes with their own network of other friends to whom you can talk to, talk with and market to – for almost no capital cost. And another is that, if the group reaches a certain size, it becomes a useful insight tool/NPD lab etc etc…
Problem is, by blindly following this law, aren’t we building larger and larger communities whose size is the very thing that makes them less useful? By making the groups effortless to join, their make-up becomes difficult to mine for useful insights, leads or targeted communications.
So should we be concentrating on making our groups more difficult to join? Make our social media groups more exclusive, not more inclusive? I don’t know. Of course, the business/brand/comms objective(s) you’re using your social media to help solve contribute to answering such a general guestions.
Personally, if someone says a group/club/cabal/team/society is difficult to join I’m immediately intrigued and will probably try harder to join it. I’ll do some proper thinking and work out if it’s in my interests – short, medium or long term – to join. And, if it’s not, I won’t feel bad towards the group. In fact, I’ll be glad I’ve not wasted my time, or theirs. Any of this sound familiar?
It’s just a thought but wondered what everyone else felt…
Groucho Marx and social media
“I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
This famous quote, from one of the Talkies’ most famous comedians, got me thinking about the future of social media. How so? Well, it’s a social media law – from whence it came, no one knows – that recruiting for your social media campaign must be as inclusive as possible. Anyone should be able to join in. You might select who to invite, and ask them via targeted media using profile or behavioural data. And when they arrive – whether via your invite or any other means – you do everything you possibly can to usher them in. In fact, there’s a developed industry focussed on refining the recruitment process to minimise drop-off. However, this seems slightly counter-intuitive to me. And that’s when I remembered Groucho’s quote.
Of course, the arguments for recruiting as many fans as possible for your social media campaign are manifold. For one, each new member may be a potential customer, if your media is working as it should. For another, each one comes with their own network of other friends to whom you can talk to, talk with and market to – for almost no capital cost. And another is that, if the group reaches a certain size, it becomes a useful insight tool/NPD lab etc etc…
Problem is, by blindly following this law, aren’t we building larger and larger communities whose size is the very thing that makes them less useful? By making the groups effortless to join, their make-up becomes difficult to mine for useful insights, leads or targeted communications.
So should we be concentrating on making our groups more difficult to join? Make our social media groups more exclusive, not more inclusive? I don’t know. Of course, the business/brand/comms objective(s) you’re using your social media to help solve contribute to answering such a general guestions.
Personally, if someone says a group/club/cabal/team/society is difficult to join I’m immediately intrigued and will probably try harder to join it. I’ll do some proper thinking and work out if it’s in my interests – short, medium or long term – to join. And, if it’s not, I won’t feel bad towards the group. In fact, I’ll be glad I’ve not wasted my time, or theirs. Any of this sound familiar?
It’s just a thought but wondered what everyone else felt…
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