THINKing

Going Social? Go Analog

Social media had tremendous growth last year as seen in the latest figures from Compete. See the chart below:

As Mashable points out in its dissection of the numbers,

We should of course keep in mind the fact that information regarding site visits and unique visitors is hardly telling of the core health of a social network. Yet at the same time this data to some degree chronicles very basically the movement of the industry as a whole. The summary diagnosis here: Slowing growth, but continued growth. And, naturally, lots of quirks throw in for some zesty flavoring.

Now, health of social media aside, let’s get to the core of the matter from my perspective. There are a lot of people spending a lot of time online on a lot of computers at a lot of social media sites. Now, if your organization decides to develop some sort of social network, you are up against a lot of competition.

So, here’s a thought: provide your customers with a real experience. Everyone else is going digital, so go analog. Offer opportunities for your customers to come together for a true social event. Give them with other real live people to meet, not some digital avatars. That’s how you build brand. Through experiences.

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