I've written before how I believe that social media success has everything to do with new behaviors, skills, roles, etc. -- it's not so much about the platform and technology (although you DO need a place to do this), it's more about how you use it.
And -- like all behaviors -- we've noticed a certain reticence in the masses to adopt many of these new behaviors.
Sure, we have our early (and vocal) adopters. But for every one of those, there are literally hundreds who are watching, and not participating.
And we've given a LOT of thought on how to improve the situation.
The Power Of Metaphor
I'm a marketing guy who routinely has to explain complex concepts to audiences who don't have a lot of time and patience to wade through all the goop.
As a result, I've come to appreciate the power of a good metaphor or analogy. It's a mental shortcut that can get people to where you want them to be, and it's a lot less painless than dragging them through all the (accurate) detail.
We needed a metaphor from the real world that described what the problem was, and how to think about it.
And we came up with "learning to swim".
Remember Back, Wayyyyy Back
I learned to swim at about the age of 6. I remember seeing a nice pool, lots of kids swimming nicely, having fun.
I was terrified. The idea of water up my nose didn't sound so good.
Now, I'm sure there were kids who paid no heed, jumped in the water, and started paddling. I was not one of those.
I needed some encouragement. I needed to go slow, at my own pace. I needed to feel comfortable with one thing before going to the next thing. I needed to know that there were people around me who could dive in and help prevent anything really bad from happening.
Before too long, I realized I liked swimming, and I was doing it pretty well. Even in the deep end. Today -- albeit many, many years later -- I'm glad I did it.
Is This A Useful Analogy?
I think so.
We present a logical case why swimming (e.g. SM behaviors) are good -- you'll have fun, it's an important skill to have, it's great exercise, etc. etc.
We give people a nice swimming pool to consider -- shallow end, deep end, diving board, etc.
We see lots of other people having fun, diving in, splashing, having a fine time indeed. It does look fun. It also looks hard.
And they look at it and think "gee, I don't want cold water up my nose".
And, to be successful at social media behaviors and skills, we're probably going to have to think about the problem in much the same way as a swimming teacher thinks about teaching kids to swim.
What Does This Lead To?
First, we were looking for a great title for our internal awareness campaign on the need for social media skills across EMC.
We were coming up with things like "Learning To Be Proficient At Social Media". Hardly compelling.
Now, we have titles like "Learning To Swim: Getting Good At Social Media Skills". Better, I think.
Secondly, we have a way of immediately establishing empathy with our target audience, e.g. "look, this is like learning to swim, it might be a little uncomfortable at the beginning, but before long you'll be having a blast". You do know how to swim, don't you?
Additionally, this metaphor helps bridge the "frustration gap" between the SM-skilled and the SM-unskilled. The people here who are comfortable with this stuff just can't comprehend what could be so hard about doing this stuff -- it's easy, it's fun, etc. A little empathy is a good thing here.
Finally, we have a productive model to design our curriculum, e.g. let's splash in the shallow end, let's put our head under water, let's try a few strokes while standing on solid ground, let's go into the deep end, let's jump off the diving board, here's your Certified Swimmer card, and so on.
I know this sounds like a little thing, but when you're dealing with massive behavior and cultural shift of 35,000 people, any shortcut is extremely valuable.
And I think we have one that works here -- thoughts?
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