by Jackie Eldridge
And before we knew it, social media was in our faces as a marketing panacea… something so new that we weren’t sure why or how works; but the one thing we knew for certain is that we needed to be involved.
I’ve been thinking about how to explain social media’s evolution in a way that makes sense to everyone. If it’s true that there are no new ideas, just iterations of existing ones, then there has to be an explanation. Right?
Here’s my hypothesis. We have been practicing social media without the benefit of the Internet for centuries. Now we have the utility of being wired with the opportunity of increasing our social media audience exponentially. The medium has changed; the idea has not.
I got to thinking about music and how musicians have engaged their audiences over the years. I’ll use Bonnie Raitt as a prime example. Rapidly approaching 60, Raitt has been playing music since she was a kid, largely influenced by her late father, John Raitt, the guy who sang the leading man vocals in theatrical productions for most of his life. She’s known for her bluesy rock, wicked bass guitar and innovative collaborations with less-traveled musicians as well as blues icons like Sippie Wallace.
History lesson is over, let’s get to my point. Bonnie took her talent and charm on the road over 40 years ago—and that’s when she began her “social media” journey. You see, her unrelenting tours around the country in small venues allowed her to get personal with her audience and engage them as though they were already friends, bound by the commonality of her music. After performances she would hold fan meet-and-greets (that’s how I met her), creating memories for fans to share for years to come. And that’s the exact formula for a social media platform: audience, authenticity and message.
Bouncing from town to town, venue to venue, Bonnie has engaged thousands of fans over the years. Each time she performs to an audience, she touches hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans. This is how social media works. If Bonnie tweets, her fans are engaged again. If she posts on Facebook, her fans and friends of her fans are touched. And her legend continues to grow today, thanks to social media.
If Bonnie had the desire to have the fame of someone such as Brittany Spears, social media would certainly help get her there. But Bonnie doesn’t have that desire; she’s comfortable where she is and enjoys having a medium to extend her hand to her fans. See? Social media can take you exactly where you want to be: paced, comfortable, on top of your game or wherever. It’s all about the social media strategy you chose to implement.
I’m not suggesting that Bonnie stop touring and reaching out to her fans because she has a strong Facebook presence; I’m saying touring and touching is the idea behind social media.
Paul Revere may be the first documented harbinger of social media with his famous 1775 horseback ride where he shouted, “the British are coming” from town to town. That’s social media in its infancy for sure, but you get the parallel. Welcome to Social Media 2.0.
