Pulled through the Krispy Kreme drive-thru on Raleigh’s Peace Street this morning to grab a pick-me-up for the beleaguered but coffee-fueled Three Ships Media team. Sidenote: “KK” was also founded in North Carolina (Winston-Salem to be exact) … Three Ships Media is in good company.
With a dozen original glazed riding shotgun and the familiar “Hot Doughnuts Now!” sign pouring neon into the street, my new best friend at the drive-thru shouted “You be careful now – don’t eat the whole box!”
That’s when it hit me. “Hot Doughnuts Now!”… But not too many!
It was a classic too-much-of-a-good thing realization, but its particularly applicable for social media marketers and online PR specialists.
For our clients – many of whom come to us with bellies growling for actionable social media marketing consults – the impulse is to dish out as many “Hot Doughnuts” as possible right away. Immediately we feel the need to bombard them with everything we feel they should know about Twitter, Facebook, content-seeding, SEO, CMS, mobile, vlogging, web maintenance and oversight, and any other great new trend or innovation.
And while this seems great from the get-go – “Alright, we’re delivering a ton of value to our clients. They’re gonna love us!” – in the end that deluge of Hot Doughnuts will lead to a knowledge and capacity overload. Much like the six doughnuts I ate this morning led to me feeling like Artie Lange looks.
The client won’t grasp every concept, which will turn them off. They’ll leave ghost-space on Twitter and Facebook when they don’t see immediate results. They’ll mis-allocate time and resources, eventually seeing social media marketing as a waste of time.
Because they haven’t had a measured introduction to the enticing “Hot Doughnut” that is social media, they’ll overindulge and burn out.
But, if they get a few Hot Donuts now – a great Facebook tutorial, followed later by a personalized content-seeding PowerPoint, followed soon thereafter by a Twitter introduction – they can begin to ease into the space, learn the nuances as they go, and take full advantage i.e. enjoy and digest the meal.
Long story short – we need to not only deliver appetizing Hot Doughnuts, but we need to be measured in how many we give out. It’s in ours and our client best interests.
