Tweet

What Would Moses Say About Social Media: The 15 Commandments

Guest post by: David Warshawski

Article Overview: David Warschawski, CEO of Warschawski, discusses the recent social media trend in his article, "What Would Moses Say About Social Media: The 15 Commandments". David shares best practices for incorporating social media into marketing and communication strategies without losing sight of your brand and traditional media.

What Would Moses Say About Social Media: The 15 Commandments

Has social media fundamentally changed the marketing communications world?

A little. But not really. Let me explain — It's like when Charlton Heston played Moses. I'll get back to that later.

You’ve probably heard some of the startling statistics like:

• As of 2010 Generation Y outnumbered Baby Boomers… and 96% of them have joined a social network
• Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
• If Facebook were a country, its population would be the third largest in the world – ahead of the U.S. and behind only China and India

This compelling data seems to be clear evidence of a revolutionary change. But as marketers, we have an obligation to maintain a proper perspective and look at the big picture. A healthy dose of social media pragmatism reveals the following:

• Traditional media, including TV, radio and newspapers are still the first news source for 73% of Americans. In fact, 74% of Americans still read a print or online edition of a newspaper
• 95% of news stories with fresh information come from "traditional media," and the vast majority of that from newspapers — suggesting that overwhelmingly traditional media breaks news and has credibility, while new media spreads and amplifies these stories
• As social media becomes more prevalent, consumers are less likely to trust their peers as sources of information. According to Edelman's latest Trust Barometer, the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.

There seems to be conflicting data that negates some of the social media hype. So who's got it right? Has social media fundamentally altered the marcom profession and how we do business today or not? I recommend that we return to some fundamental truths to ensure we get the right answer.

First, let's remember the basic tenets of marketing communications. We engage in marcom efforts to achieve four basic goals:

• Build Relationships
• Influence
• Persuade
• Move to Action

These principles have not changed. What has changed are the channels through which we as professional marketers can communicate.

When Charlton Heston played Moses on film it didn't change the underlying story and that story's appeal to so many people. The medium for reaching the target audience was all that changed. For many it changed how they could interact with the story and made it more accessible.

Just like when TV or email was introduced, we had another vehicle for reaching our target audience and empowering others to do so on our behalf. However, the underlying philosophy of what we were trying to accomplish and what made for a good story didn't fundamentally change.

The evolution, not revolution, we’re witnessing today is all about how tobest reach and connect with a specific target audience. Thanks in part to the emergence of social media, we have more ways of reaching that target audience than ever before. But we shouldn’t abandon our core beliefs just because we are given the gift of another communications channel.

To Warschawski, that means having clarity of business goals and never losing sight of brand — the heart and soul of every successful marketing effort. Brand is the fundamental emotional experience you want your target audience to have every time they come into contact with your company, product or service. Clarity of brand, coupled with defined business goals and identified priority target audiences is the best way to determine which communications methods are going to be most effective.

When it comes to developing award-winning strategies for our clients, we consider ourselves “tactic agnostic.” That is, we aren’t married to any one communications vehicle or method. We will espouse the medium or mediums that can best convey brand to the core target audience and move them to take a desired action. Often, and ideally, this involves a number of different tactics working in concert, including social media, to get the optimum result.

So what would Moses say about social media? I'll channel my best Charlton Heston voice to share what we think Moses would have said.

Lest you become a disciple of a more narrow-minded school of thought that overly focuses on social media, I offer the following 15 Commandments of Social Media as a(tongue-in-cheek) guide for staying on the righteous path.

The 15 Commandments of Social Media Marketing

1. Thou shall confirm a clearly articulated & agreed upon brand, including clarity of target audiences in order of priority.
2. Thou shall have agreed upon business goals before creating social media campaigns – so is the law.
3. Thou shall first empower your internal audience to live thy brand & be thy brand ambassadors.
4. Thou shall create brand centric social media campaigns that emotionally connect to your core target audience, or thou shall perish in the wilderness.
5. Thou shall always be authentic, credible and transparent.
6. Thou shalt not confuse a communications vehicle or tactic with a marketing strategy upon risk of stoning.
7. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s strategy – a good strategy or tactic for thy neighbor does not mean thou should do it as well.
8. Thou shalt not confuse media buzz, numbers of friends & likes with building thy brand and achieving thy business goals.
9. Thou shalt not indulge in random acts of social media – ensure thou do it consistently & well by following a strategic, goal-oriented plan.
10. Thou shall not try to create the next viral video – the odds of favor being bestowed upon thee are exceedingly poor.
11. Thou shall create “hub and spoke” integrated campaigns – a big strategic idea that employs multiple marcom disciplines will make you strong & mighty among the nations.
12. Thou shall appoint a dedicated and highly competent hi-tech priest or priestess to oversee, run, monitor, measure & always improve it.
13. Thou shall empower thy target audience to do the work for thee – grant them the tools to take things into social media for thee, for this shall imbue credibility upon thee.
14. Thou shall strive for engagement and interactivity – merely posting or pushing out information is an abomination.
15. Thou shall make peace with letting go of ultimate control of your brand. For if you cannot, then do not tarry in this land.

Related Articles
  Where the Bible teaches us how to improve our cashflow
  The 10 Commandments of Successful Marketing
  Email Etiquette - 6 Key Guidelines to Consider Before You Hit Send
  “Should I or shouldn’t I”
  Resourcing B2B social media
  Social Media is NOT about Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin
  Legal Marketing: Social Media and Law Firms
  Social Media Gains Momentum for B2B Marketers
  Strategies For Utilizing Social Media Outlets
  Social media : why should my business use this resource?
  The Remarkable Growth of Social Media - an Infographic
  SOCIAL MEDIA: THE NEW GOLDEN AGE OF COMMUNICATING!
  Legal Marketing: Blog opportunities
  13 Signs Your Business is Heading for Social Media Obscurity
  How To Use Social Media For Your Business
  Where Are You in Social Media Adoption Curve?
  Is Social Media Killing Your Business?
  Brands 50% more popular than celebrities in social media
  12 Tips for the Social Media Newbie
  How Social is Your Email?

Article Tags: Commandments of Social Media, David Warschawski, Social Media, Social Media and Marketing, Social Media PR, Warschawski



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Basics Of A Home Based Internet Business

Ask All to Buy!

Starting a Business a Brave Move or a NoBrainer

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.