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Lists are huge in social media. But there are way too many. With so little time and attention to give, I thought some "one item long" lists might be handy.
Only have time to learn the one thing you need to rocket your business to the top via social media? Here it is:
1. Passionate Interest
That's it. Whether CEO or corporate tweet writing flunky, if you can approach social media with the wide-open-eyed excitement of a child, you will have what it takes to see your marketing plans through to success. It will provide the foundation to carry you through all of the other necessary steps required to get it right.
Why? Easy - Social media doesn't want to help you make more money for your company. Social media doesn't want to help you drive up the number of people on your email list. Social media doesn't want to pass out coupons for you lunch special. Because of this, the path to business success in social media is going to be a lot like predicting the weather. You're very unlikely to get it exactly right, and there's every opportunity to get it very wrong. With business pursuits, social media becomes a world of chaos; a fractal landscape where the finish line is always scurrying away. There is no silver bullet, so stop looking for one. You are going to need a willingness to persevere.
With a passionate interest, these facts should intrigue and excite you. With a fascination, you will be lucky not to pin 100% of your business hopes on driving instant profitability in social media. You'll care, but you won't care enough to stop trying after failing a few times. You'll care, but you won't care enough to stop when some slice on a pie chart isn't big enough. You'll care, but you won't forget that what you are attempting to do with social media is almost humorously antithetical to social media itself.
Your passion will drive you on until you find that one spark your business needs to ride the infinitely thin line between social interaction and flat out pandering for a buck. That passion will drive you to pay serious attention to goals, budgets and resources while always keeping an eye on authenticity and the bigger picture.
Can you use social media as a business tool without passionate interest? You sure can. It's happening every day and probably to varying degrees of success. But know that most of the businesses that now call social media a failure probably didn't have the self-aware understanding of what they were trying to do. In this sphere, business success comes from the ability to embrace social media rather than tame it. Remember that social media doesn't exist for your business. It exists for you and your friends.
So, quick gut check time. Are you passionately interested in social media's ever-evolving opportunity and human-techno interaction-ness? Are you ready to use that to fuel some dice rolls with a smile on your face?
If you're going to land the perfect jump in social media, you're going to need to fall off the ramp several times and smile as you go back up to the top to try again. A truly passionate interest will serve you like a really good pair of knee pads and a tightly fitted helmet. You're gonna need them.
