Social Media Lessons from the TV Show 'Wipeout!'
Posted by Mark Campanale on Sun, Aug 08, 2010 @ 08:41 AM
by Mark Campanale, Marketing & Social Media Manager
If you put up secret traps when sharing your information, then you are the social media equivalent to the TV show, Wipeout.
On Wipeout, contestants line up with all the confidence in the world to make their way through an obstacle course with the hopes of winning $50,000. Within moments of beginning the course, however, 'something' jumps in their way of acheiving their ultimate goal (and we, of course, laugh).
Now, let's look at this from the web's perspective.
Imagine you are on twitter, or in a group on LinkedIn, and you see a quite enticing link from a social media connection to an e-book full of info to help you be more successful. HOWEVER! Upon clicking the link, you get 'face planted' by a FORM! And if this 'double cross' wasn't bad enough, all fields are mandatory - down to the 'best time to call' field.
This is as close to spam as possible without spamming. The downside is that 9 times out of 10 the info isn't worth the click, and now they have your info.
What's wrong with sharing?
Why are David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, CC Chapman, Chris Penn and others so successful? They share their expertise on a daily basis! By sharing with others their knowledge and expertise, they:
- Get re-shared
- Get more followers
- Get business!
I learned about one of my favorite authors, JC Hutchins, through a tweet by CC Chapman. I started following JC who gives away video and textual excerpts of his books on his web site! Whoa - an author giving away stories? This has turned into many, many fans for JC Hutchins.
The take away here is to tear down the obstacle course - let your readers get to your information without running into a wall! Create info and share it freely. The rewards will return to you 10-fold.