We are becoming increasingly annoyed by “social media experts” who pitch their “killer app” as the end-all-be-all of an online strategy.
Likewise, we are troubled by the array of “experts” who are serving on panels and speaking to impressionable crowds about the power of the online campaign to raise money for your organization, political candidate or cause.
Please … we implore all you “experts” out there: please stop.
But instead of continuing this rant, we’ll just leave you with this excerpt from Fast Company’s recent profile of Facebook founder/Obama online guru Chris Hughes:
“The best practices in direct mail are different than in email, different still where video is used,” says Joe Rospars, who ran the Obama campaign’s new-media unit. As Rospars and Hughes built a growing list of online supporters for Obama, the campaign’s fundraisers wanted to hit the group up for cash. Rospars persuaded them to wait until his email team could “create a narrative that let people know they were part of the campaign.”
Now, despite your political leanings, the moral of the story is this: slow down and take a deep breath.
If you look at the e-campaign as an ATM first, or put your tactics (i.e., “killer app”) ahead of the narrative — you are sure to fail.