All posts by Brian Harrison

You Should Be Reading: Luckie’s 30-Day Social Media Makeover

David Griner, Social Media Strategist at Luckie & Company, is presenting Luckie’s 30-Day Social Media Makeover on The Social Path.  This month-long series of tips is intended to help:

1. Clean up the clutter.
2. Get you feeling re-energized and productive.
3. Improve your search presence and bring continuity to your online identity.
4. Expand how you see social media, and maybe even try something new.

David, and everyone else involved at Luckie & Company, has provide a great list of tips so far, and will continue to do so throughout the month.  It’s worth the time to go give it a look.

An Analogy

Let’s say you own, or even work for, a business of some sort.  The type of business really doesn’t matter.

On any given day, the telephone rings.

What do you do?  You answer it.

Why? Because on the other end of the line could be that important message from an existing customer, a call from a new prospect, a large sale just waiting to happen, or even that new star employee that would make an excellent addition to the team.

Now, let’s apply that same thinking to the social media realm.

In this example, social media (as a general term) is that telephone ringing.

There are those who choose to just let it ring and ring, using excuses such as ‘oh, we just don’t have time to deal with it’ or ‘we don’t know what to do’.  And yet, the phone continues to ring.

How you answer the call and respond (tactics and execution) will vary, depending on the situation of course.  But when you look at it this way, how much longer can you afford to just stand there and watch the telephone ring away before you take the first step, pick it up, and say hello.

Purple Carrots

Did you know that historically, the orange carrot was just one of many varieties available?  In fact, there was no single color of carrots – they came in several different hues: Orange, white, yellow, red.

And yes, even purple.

But then something changed.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch growers developed the orange carrot that we know today by selective breeding to make it less bitter than the yellow variety.  It was then adopted as the Royal Vegetable in honor of the House of Orange, the Dutch Royal Family.

Today, the orange carrot remains the most popular – and readily accessible variety in the United States.  However, they are not the only ones around.

And that, my friends, is where the agriculture lesson ends and the parallel begins.

In today’s marketing world, the orange carrot is what a majority of businesses gravitate toward.  It is the tried-and-true execution.  The television spot.  The print ad.  The radio spot.  These are the orange carrots.

And these are part of a healthy diet.  But that doesn’t mean they are the only choice.

The purple, white, yellow and red carrots offer a variety of alternatives to the traditional that is the orange carrot.  At times, they may be good on their own.  In other cases, it could be a mix of the varieties that offers the best nutritional value.

But it’s up to those of us who are charged with advising and guiding clients to make sure that they know these options are available.  We must take a leadership role in this regard, educate our clients, and when appropriate, include these different colors and flavors into the mix.

Something to stew on for a while.