The 10 Simple Steps To Social Media Success

Ok, I lied. There is no 10 step plan. There’s not a 5 step plan. It doesn’t exist. Just doesn’t. Stop looking for it. It kills me, daily, to see posts written from publications and would be experts, spouting advice…offering some holy grail of a playbook. It’s bad for all of us.

You want the truth? Social Media is HARD. It’s not even on the same continent as easy. It’s painfully difficult. Well, it’s hard and difficult to do it right…to do more than simply optimize Facebook posts or recommend what content to pin. If there’s one thing I’ve seen up close and very personal, social media ain’t easy.

To trick yourself into believing the answers can be found in a book, at a conference or in some blog post, is to set yourself up for a path to failure. You have to constantly try different things. You have to fail…repeatedly…over and over. You have to get frustrated. You have to get to the point of wanting to quit, because it’s gotten too tough, but then you come back the next day with even more resolve to succeed. I’m serious. It’s not until you find yourself in one of those conversations, where you can’t believe that person A or team X is really debating the merits of doing [insert idea] in social, that you’ll finally be ready to understand how hard it really is.

Stop looking for the quick fix. Don’t read the 10 Simple Steps To Social Media Success, posts…they’re simply holding you back. Get into the thick of it. Mix it up. Experiment. Learn. Fail. Experiment again and again. If I could impart one legitimate piece of advice to someone looking to lead social media at an organization it would be to study the 20 to 30 people in this world, who understand social media and are doing it every day, at scale for complex organizations. Pay more attention to Scott Monty than Chris Brogan. Study Rick Wion and pass on the books from Mack Collier. Pick up a phone and call Scott Gulbransen, I bet he’ll pick up, and pass on the call from so called social media consultancy with all the answers.

The truth, the honest truth, there’s a really small group of people who have succesfully built and lead social media at complex organizations. They’re out there though. And I have a feeling, they’d tell you, what I just said: social media is HARD.

http://twitter.com/MackCollier Mack Collier

I always chuckle at people that get so upset at seeing ’10 Steps to…’ type posts. ’Its not that easy!’ they say. Let’s give our readers a little credit, shall we? When most people want to learn about a topic, they investigate. When the average marketer wants to learn how to craft a social media strategy, they probably do some Googling for related terms, and they probably find a lot of posts written by those ‘social media experts’ that you love They look for common themes and tips, and then they EXPERIMENT. They see what works for them, and what doesn’t. Most marketers (at least the good ones) use such advice as a starting point, not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ rule.

Let’s give our readers a little credit, shall we? Then they can spend their time on more lofty endeavors, like joining you in your crusade to save the world from ‘social media experts’
http://www.thekmiecs.com/ adamkmiec

The issue is not would-be experts or social media consultants. In fact, there are several amazing consultants out there with practical real-world experience. Jeremiah Owyang is one of comes to mind. The issue, is that we believe that over-simplification, by these would-be experts, of a very complex challenge, is the truth, when in fact, it’s far from it. We need, as an industry, to stop looking for the quick fix, the simple answer and the Social Media for Dummies approach. We need to realize, this is tough and there are truly only a handful of people with the battle scars, demonstrating legitimate credibility, who could probably offer solid blue prints. The answer is not in a book, regardless of how entertaining or even factual they are. If I wanted to solve a challenge in the social media enterprise, I’d be better off turning to Rick, Scott and Shauna Causey than I would turning to the answers offered via the NY Times Best Seller List. That’s the point. And given the overwhelmingly positive response from people reading the post, I think I’m on to something.
http://twitter.com/MackCollier Mack Collier

Adam if you’ll notice, I’m not arguing with you or saying your points about certain marketers being quite smart is wrong. What I’m saying is that your post and comments smack of ‘these guys are wrong, the guys on my side of the fence are right’.

So if you have better answers, why not share them? It’s easy to say the people that are actually putting information out there are wrong, but it seems a bit silly to do that, and not offer any insights of your own.

Wouldn’t it be far more productive to share your knowledge instead of simply pointing fingers at people that are already doing so? That’s MY point. Personally, I think you would offer a very valuable perspective and insights that would help others. Why don’t be as helpful as you can be?
http://www.thekmiecs.com/ adamkmiec

I think we have to agree to disagree. At no point in time did say you’re wrong…or those in your space. I did say, they need to stop looking for simple answers.
http://www.livefixblog.com/ Chris

Nice post Adam. I specifically like your point about the need to fail in social media in order to be successful. And I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately with fellow colleagues about wanting to hear more stories about social media failure. For me, I’ve always valued more and learned from stories of failure more than stories of success. But for that to happen the “social media experts” and brands will have to take a big risk in sharing their failures and what they learned from them. That said, I’m sure you have some great lessons to share and I would love to learn more about your failures in a future blog post.