For anyone that has watched any James Bond film that involves a poker scene – in fact any film that involves a poker scene – the message is clear you don’t play your cards you simply play the man opposite you. Well in social media and marketing in general it is exactly the same thing.
The key to marketing is understanding the mindset and the position of the consumer looking at whatever kind of advertising you are are doing. To understand exactly that you need to know the typical circumstances that the consumer finds themselves in combined with their demographic and as best you can second guess what they are doing. The two most important words in marketing at the moment are ‘Content’ and ‘Context’ – ideas for good content can be found by a google search these days and we are all part of seeing different viral campaigns so how can you make the most of ‘Context’.
It all about your market research, if you know who it is that you are looking for then finding out where they are is much more important. The key with social media is to think outside the box a little bit so for example you have great video content and of course you are going to get yourself on YouTube and make sure your content is front and centre but have you considered Vimeo and 5By and how to get on those platforms if of course your content is relevant. Yes the majority of people are on Twitter or Facebook and yes you can argue that the content is going to have to make an appearance on there too. Finding a social network with all the principles of these two giants but with only 30% of the noise and a 20% increase in your key demographic might be infinitely more profitable.
Just as with poker, social media isn’t about finding the games with the biggest pots its about finding the games you can win.