I’m telling you this so you’ll know there are things you don’t (and quite possibly can’t) know.

Also, there’s the off-chance one of the C4Biz Marketeers might be checking up on me, so here’s a few tips. For them. If you’re not them, just come along for the ride…

If you write often, you’ll (probably) write better.
(Yes, I saw that too!)

I’m a big fan of writing often (despite the frequency of public/published posts on this blog).

I’m sure there are people out there who believe bloggers are usually just shouting fervent, self-important declarations into/at the void, but this will not always be the case… especially not in mine.*

Writing isn’t always about “committing” thoughts to paper.

Writing can be a process in which a subject/concept can be teased and tested, questioned and quartered – but there is also a simultaneous internal audit taking place for the writer; all the nebulous thoughts, feelings (biases?) that inspired the desire to write must be corralled into some sort of order before we can begin.

Do this enough, and you may end up appreciate writing as a process, rather than the means by which we make statements.

I like to believe a writer that attempts to understand their own place in the world will be better able to articulate a meaningful position on the subject.

It’s all just triangulation really, innit?

Having made a short story long - editors hate that – I’d encourage anyone, even my Marketeers, to try some ‘invisible’ blogging.

Seriously:it’ going to be huge.

Invisibloggers© will be the new “hipsters”, and I should know; I’ve been doing it since before this batch of hipsters had even been born.

Don’t write to commit your thoughts to paper;
Write to find thoughts worth committing to.

* Cool! You totally noticed that asterisk way back there which indicated… well… not so much an ‘edit’, as musch as an acknowledgement that sometimes I get i:the way of my own flow.

“I’m sure that there are people out there who believe that bloggers are simply shouting fervent declarations into the void, but this will not always be the case… especially not in mine.

Except for those times when I clearly have the right of a situation and none of you do.

Yes, it happens – and it’s not my fault that it happen so very, very frequently. Those times when we are all of us trapped together in a House of Mirrors (not literally) – a state of existence in which Life begins to imitate Comedy (which itself started by caricaturing Life)… endlessly reflecting….

Until I prove definitively that Society is indeed to Blame, only to be reminded by all of you both ironically and definitively that I’m NOT observing Society from some abstract ‘other’ state and thus I too, must acknowledge my complicit involvement; must bear my share of the Blame.

Now, where was I? Oh yes…

Writing isn’t necessarily “committing” your thoughts to paper.

But as another cliche puts it: If you haven’t got anything nice to say, blog away until discomfort passes, using your custom keyboard that only accepts keystrokes made in blood don’t say anything at all…

Fortunately, I find myself with rather a lot of nice things to say.

I’ve recently taken up a position as a Marketing Lecturer for Music Industry Business students.

I love teaching — it provides (a) a reason to organise all the things you think you know into tiny units of communicable information, and (b) an audience that had better damn well listen.

So much for my stand-up comedy aspirations.

Anyhoo, I was asked if it was necessary for a music business (not necessarily a band) to be on Facebook, to which I replied, “Not really — noone does any real business on FB.”

In response: “People do business on facebook all the time — excuse me, I’ve got a Skype-call coming through…”

[commence rant]

Taking the opportunity to organise a considered reply, I offer you all this (in recognition that this blog had ceased to be useful).

“People do business on facebook all the time”

To my mind, this isn’t quite right.

People don’t buy, sign contracts or conduct credit checks using facebook.

People conduct elements of their business activities online using facebook, but ‘business’ in and of itself (ie. commerce; transaction of goods and services in exchange for $) doesn’t really occur at all. Even the much-ignored advertising that accompanies the delivery of social media doesn’t result in an actual sale — it simply directs you to places where commerce can occur.

Social media is a new (but relatively recent and ever-changing) tool which artists/businesses can use to promote their goods, or develop professional networks with people they hope to conduct actual ‘business’ with (networking up).

Used well, social media can also be a powerful tool for developing your fans and customers into communities — Seth Godin calls them tribes –  groups that are better able to link with one another and/or organise themselves to undertake additional business activities (predominantly marketing and promotion) on your behalf, ie.testimonials (word of mouth/third party advocacy), discovering new audiences or creating a presence that can be easily found by others — in some cases, people who exist in markets outside your direct influence or awareness.

Because of the nature in which people use digital media, I’ve made a distinction between fans and customers
(people who like your products/services and people who actually pay for them). Traditionally, one could easily make this distinction using bands such as The Wiggles — the person who buys the product isn’t necessarily the person who consumes the product.

Given the varying ways and levels of sophistication with which people engage/use/consume digital media – this distinction becomes less obvious — are the people that are championing your product/service/brand online people your customers?

I won’t get into piracy, IP or ‘traditional sales’ issues here, but it is pretty clear across most forms of digital media (Music, Film, Gaming etc) that the purchase of a product is not nearly as important to modern consumers as the enjoyment of that same product.

However, there are a couple of points on the nature of digital consumer culture that deserve a mention here — the emerging and unreliable philosophy of “try it — and if you like it, buy it” which can result in actual sales — sometimes long after the initial release and accompanying marketing strategy have run their course.

There is also the important (and hard to measure) influence of product/brand ‘champions’ — people who have discovered your business through non-traditional (and sometimes illegal) means, but then actively promote on your behalf — buying legitimate copies for friends or producing indirect sales by introducing the product to their peer groups and/or social networks.

Social media can also be a powerful tool for market research, conflict resolution, customer identification and retention — most of which are elements of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) [see Wikipedia -- in particular the section on Social Media]

But REMEMBER – the development of communities or tribes requires a lot of interaction; opportunities for individuals to engage directly with your business in a manner that they feel is both practical and personal, interactions that ‘feel’ meaningful to both parties.

Ultimately, I believe that this requires a lot more time, effort and skill than most businesses might expect –it’s a form of communication/engagement that;

• is difficult to measure in terms of the bottom line (time and resource management versus sales).
• inherently exposed to risk (real-time publishing within the public domain) with potential public relations debacles.
• needs to be tailored to the strengths and nuances of the different (and emerging) social media platforms.

Keeping all of this in mind, I believe the short answer to the “does my business need to use social media” question is this: Not necessarily.

The long answer is more like this: devotees of social media (your perceived or potential market base) are often deeply engaged and quite sophisticated in their use of specific platforms. Accordingly,  there are two common traps for businesses with regard to social media:

1. the belief that a business must engage in social media; and alternatively,
2. the belief that social media is an ‘add-on’ or ‘plug-in’ to existing/traditional business activities.

My belief is that a business that does not use social media is better off than a business that uses it badly.

Then vent.

Lather, rinse, repeat…
—-

Hi X__X, sorry about that..

Sorry for the intrusion… I believe you assisted me as a customer service rep over a year ago.

I gave LinkedIn permission to access my contact list, but it’s mined *all* emails and is set to ‘invite’ by default.

This has been made worse by the fact that the list of names appeared without a scrolling navbar on my iPhone.

I’m tempted to believe this is a deliberate fault in the UX design.

If so, it makes a mockery of the privacy measures that place the onus on the user to demonstrate that they know the person they’re inviting.

Clearly the same responsibilities do not apply to LinkedIn.

Apologies too for the length of this email, but once I get started, I generally end up sending a copy to the party that has used my data to make ME a spammer.

May your day be filled with satisfied customers

Sab