Chasing status

Is it a number? Is it a neat calculation? Or, is it the knowledge that you have about a person or website, based on knowing them and their industry inside out, knowing who talks to who, what they do outside of their social media activity? The last one, the knowledge you have about someone, is far more important than any number or calculation when it comes to social media. Don’t get me wrong, numbers have their place, up to a point, when what you need is quick verification that your efforts are being spent in the right place. But then again, social media shouldn’t be a rushed effort, which is why you need to spend the time establishing the authority of the person you’re targeting.

This  may sound crass to those individuals that are being contacted by PR agencies, but the fact is that people have to know they have a reason for reaching out to someone, that this person is relevant to their subject, product etc… Numbers won’t tell you this. If I conducted all my campaigns based on numbers – those with the most Twitter followers, highest Technorati ranking, or most Facebook friends, I don’t think I would get very far. What is important to me is that I know that person. I know, for example, what they’re interested in outside of their listed interests on their blog and how likely they are to engage with the brand in question. I don’t really care if they’re not the most popular person on Twitter, if I read their blog and know that I’m about to get in touch with them, with something of real interest to them. What’s more valuable to me – a person with 10,000 followers who I spend weeks chasing fruitlessly with the sum of my effort maybe being a tweet? Or someone that is actually interested in the area the brand operates in, who has 100 Twitter followers, but blogs regularly and passionately and ends up giving a great (and fair) review of the product, service, event etc.. I know which one I’d rather have.

The problem with numbers is that they’re too distracting. It’s easy to get dazzled by them. They begin to shape your activity and you go after what you think is the kudos that their accreditation will give. So you target the top 10 bloggers in the country, regardless of what you’re trying to promote and hope that they’ll take an interest. 2 big problems here. One – if you’re chasing status, you’re not chasing a targeted audience. You want to reach those people that have a genuine interest in and operate in your industry. Numbers don’t determine this. Secondly, imagine you are in the top 10 bloggers, tweeters etc.. How often do you think they get contacted? The chances are, a lot. So if you’re emailing someone regarding a product that has nothing to do with what they write about or are interested in, you probably won’t even get a reply and you’ll actually just end up annoying someone in the process.

The power of the niche

Remember, at the heart of everything that you do, that social media is about narrowcasting, not broadcasting. It affords you the capability to target niche audiences and to target people by interest. Take advantage of this and realise the awesomeness it affords you and your marketing activity. If you’re good at what you do, you can get to know someone and their interests at a genuine level, know the spaces they operate in and know how likely they are to respond to your efforts. This is what authority really is. It’s not a rank, it’s not a number. It can be that small piece of knowledge, for example, that, even though they don’t have many Twitter followers or write on their own blog, they contribute regularly to one of the biggest blogs in your area. This is your golden nugget. But you only get access to this information when you make an effort to get to know people and your industry inside out.

The other problem with numbers, is that you can get so wrapped up in them, they begin to lose meaning, both to you and the client. Twitter grader is a popular site among many in the social media industry, that gives you a ‘grade’ when you enter a username. This number has little meaning to me and, I’m sure, even less meaning to the client. What does a grade of ’90′ or ’98′ really mean to them? It doesn’t tell them much and I know I’m not being paid to construct a campaign based on what a set of tools tell me. It’s my job to establish the relevancy and authority of, for example, someone on Twitter. That’s not a numbers game, it’s that specialist knowledge that I have because I’ve made myself active in their space, I’ve got to know them and their followers. Whether they’re ranked as 10 or 100 has little meaning to me if I know they sent a tweet yesterday saying they need good information on snow levels in ski resorts and my client happens to built a handy app that tells them just this. Just because they don’t have as many Twitter followers they’re not going to be important to me?

There will always be elitism in media, there will always be hierarchies. Of course you want to reach the best of the best. But just as in PR you wouldn’t blanket broadcast every single press release to every section of the nationals, you’re not going to aimlessly target the big numbers through social media. Get to know the people behind the numbers, that’s what social media is really about.