Change In location!

Hey everybody. I just wanted to let you know that this blog has moved for the time being.

I am now located at  http://socialshortage55.wordpress.com/  . I hope that everyone is able to find it and that I have your continued support. Email me if you have a problem at mday55@gmail.com . Also be sure to keep an eye on the Facebook page for the new movement http://www.facebook.com/NextGenHorticulture. See you all at Wordpress!

Real People and Fake Friends

When you think about your social media strategy what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think about connecting with your customers (or the customers of your customers)? Is it about spreading a message and championing causes? Or is it simply about getting as much publicity as possible to help generate profits from your products and services?

Let’s be honest everyone who owns a business and uses any form of Social Media in their marketing strategy is hoping to see a boost in profits because of it. This is completely understandable. However, lately in the news we have been hearing about instances on Facebook and Twitter where users have generated thousands of “followers” or “likes” that are now turning out to be fakes. Also every time you go on any type of Social Media information site on the web, ads pop up telling you that they can get you thousands of followers overnight, but does simply appearing to have a large following really help when it comes to marketing your products and services? I would say it’s about as good as having a thousand invisible friends. Sure you can look at yourself and think you’re doing big things and make up stories about how you know all these people, but when other people find out you’re talking about individuals that don’t exist they are going to call you out on being a liar (and in the case of invisible friends, probably just plain crazy)!

The problem goes deeper than that though. Yes, it’s wrong that businesses are lying to their consumers and trying to seem more influential than they actually are, but the real problem here is that these businesses and individuals have lost sight of the true importance of Social Media and perhaps marketing in general. When you are creating a marketing strategy, specifically a Social Media Marketing strategy the first thing to remember is that marketing is not simply about selling. In order for marketing to be successful it has to be informative and truthful. If you aren’t truthful eventually people will begin to sniff through all the lies. In Social Media this even goes a step further. Here people really expect you to be transparent and open. You are trying to get into their personal surroundings, and if they are going to let you into that personal environment then you have to give them a personal feel as well.

The notion of fake followers also disturbs me for another reason. Social Media Marketing is about connecting to people and showing them that what you’re doing is important and can benefit them as well. It’s about connecting to REAL people. What good can 10,000 fake followers do? Sure it might make you more noticeable, but how many real people does that really bring to your page? Are those even the people that you truly want to connect with? I know that if I produced a product that I really thought was something great and marketed through Social Media, I wouldn’t simply be looking for fans that liked me because I simply had thousands of fans already. Also when it comes down to it, what is the true point of these fake followers? You can’t market a product to a fake person. Well, I suppose you can but I doubt they’ll end up buying anything from you. Bottom line here is that only real people lead to real sales that lead to real money.

The real message here is that we as an industry shouldn’t fall prey to these deceptive strategies that other industries have begun to use. The people who we want to reach are real hardworking people, and so are we. If we show this in our Social Media efforts it will be appreciated and will lead to better business. This should be the goal of any marketing strategy: connect with your customer and prove that you can offer them the best product/service at the best price. Let your “popularity” speak for itself.

On another note, I am thinking of moving this blog to Wordpress. If that would be a problem for any readers out there please let me know. If there are a number of people who would prefer me to stay on Blogger, I will gladly do so. I am even thinking about simply doubling up and posting the same posts on both sites. Please let me know what you prefer/think.

In case you need to contact me for any reason my contact information is:

Email mday55@gmail.com

Twitter @mday55

Or search for me on Google +, LinkedIn, or on Klout. 

Keeping the Connection and some Sesame Street too!

Recently I moved back into my college residence. Yes, I’m still in college; I hope I didn’t lose any readers who didn’t know this previously! Things have been pretty hectic around here signing up for classes and looking for jobs (as I’ll be graduating in December). At the same time I am coming into this last semester with my eyes and ears open. I am looking at things differently. I am trying to pick up on the subtleties of my generation that I may have never even noticed before. If I can gain knowledge about a generation by being vigilant I can then turn around and share my findings with you and then as an industry we can move forward and adjust our marketing strategies accordingly.

The last few days something has become really apparent to me that we as an industry need to take note of if we want to make gardening “cool” to Generation Y.  Being on a college campus again reminded me that Generation Y is more connected than any other generation before. Students no longer have to walk to other students residences to see what they are doing later – they just send a text. Students no longer have to call multiple people when they want to hold any sort of event – they just send an invite on Facebook. Even when students go to a football game or concert and want to know what other students thought about it they no longer have to ask each individual person – they simply look up a hash-tag on Twitter.

The bottom line is that Generation Y is used to being connected at the touch of a button. Through Social Media, millennials can access millions of members in their generation in a matter of seconds. Here in lies the problem that our industry faces. How can we start a movement to create a spark for a generation wide movement to make gardening something of interest? I understand that there are various movements on the big social media sites. However we as an industry need to get it out there. I can tell you that there are very few people on most college campuses that think about gardening on a weekly basis.

This is something we have to change.  The reason why other industries are so successful is that they introduce products to people at a young age. Lately gardening isn’t reaching the younger people in this nation. When we think about marketing we can’t think merely about selling a product. We also have to think about selling the future of our industry. If our industry can somehow make gardening cool to kids in elementary school, middle school, and high school we have embedded gardening into the minds of young people.

I think that this is the main problem with our industry. We are too reactive and not proactive. By establishing kid friendly garden centers and sponsoring kid events or even starting gardening websites for kids we have made it easier on the future of our industry. Currently we are trying to market to a group of people that are already set in their ways.

Some people will say that marketing to children is wrong, but believe me companies out there who are doing these same things are offering a lot worse. We are offering a healthy lifestyle to the future of the world.

Today was really a 2 for 1 post. I’ve had two topics burning me lately and needed to get them out there.  In the coming weeks I’ll be diving back more into the logistics of Social Media yet again. I just needed some time to set up my new “office” and get set to continue my research.

Please feel free to contact me for questions or comments. I return all emails and Twitter mentions.

Email: mday55@gmail.com

Twitter: @mday55

Or find me by searching LinkedIn or Klout!

Also I’ll make a shameless plug that I am currently a gun for hire. I’ll be graduating this semester (a semester early) so if you know of or have a job available please feel free to let me know! Thank You!