The New Year is upon us. I, for one, felt like I had all sorts of time to plan and then all of the sudden it was January 3rd and I realized that execution must take the place of planning. It is very possible to plan too much and find yourself in Q2 having not yet actually done anything. Inaction is the death of any warrior on the battlefield of social media.

In honor of ushering in another year that is sure to be bursting with technological advancements, I want to humbly submit four tips that are important–nay crucial–to success in social media marketing. My mind is filled with that scene from Varsity Blues where Jon Voight repeatedly bangs his whistle against James Van Der Beek’s helmet, intoning, “Stick to the basics, stick to the basics, stick to the basics.”

And so, some basics. But do not for one second think that because these tips are “basic” that they are not important. That is a mistake too often made by the arrogant. Is breathing (certainly one of the most basic functions of our living bodies) not important? Are the basic impulses sent from your brain telling your heart to beat not, in some ways, among the most important functions of your body?

The tips commence.

In an information-saturated online marketing world, it can be challenging to find relevant content on a regular basis without committing valuable time. Using feed readers can cut through the clutter by customizing your view of the Web.

Feed readers aggregate new content from multiple sources— blogs, news sites, and multimedia— using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology, allowing you to quench your thirst for a particular field without visiting individual websites. Given its utter simplicity and its extreme utility, it astonishes me that I still have friends who haven’t yet set up a feed reader.

In 1793 Napoleon Bonaparte was a young officer fighting a gruesome battle at the Siege of Toulon. He had not yet become the great general or Emperor that we all know today, but nonetheless, even as a young man, he displayed a shrewd and calculating knowledge of how to lead men and affect their actions to further his goals.

Napoleon, a 24-year-old Captain at the time, had set up a gun battery in a forward position. In fact, the battery was so far forward that Napoleon’s superiors said he would never get anyone to man it. The battery was so close to the enemy and so exposed that to take up the post meant guaranteed death by enemy artillery. Indeed, the first men ordered to the post refused. Undeterred, Napoleon had one of his sergeants create a wood placard with a message on it and place the placard on a stake near the gun battery. The message on the placard read: The Battery for the Men Without Fear. The position was manned day and night from that point on by soldiers eager to prove their heroism, and Napoleon’s battery dominated the city’s harbor. The resulting withdrawal of the British Royal Navy led to French victory and the start of Napoleon’s illustrious career.

So what does this teach us about marketing? Speak to people’s deepest emotions in order to succeed.

Here are some of those deep emotions which, when activated, lead people to take action:

1. Pride (specifically in one’s background, country, religion, etc…)
2. Manliness or femininity
3. Feeling of safety

Of course, the idea of appealing to these elements within people is not new. You can see each of the three above examples in any Chevy truck commercial. If you drive a Chevy truck you are not only safer than others on the road, but you also manlier than non-Chevy truck drivers, and also more proud of America. Chevy hits as many of your emotions as possible. But wait, what about Ford? Ford’s commercials say their trucks carry more weight and make you more manly. And then there’s Dodge, and Toyota..oh damn, they all say they are the most manly. One can pull a train, one can stop an airplane, one can drive off after a 3-ton rock is dropped in its bed. This is the equivalent of Napoleon having four gun batteries and placing the same placard in front of all of them. It wouldn’t have worked. A superlative is, by definition, an exclusive thing. There can only be one best, manliest, sexiest, bravest, —–est.

So, continuing our truck example, we have four pickup trucks lined up in front of us. Each truck has a wooden placard in front of it saying: Truck for the strongest men.

Confused, we all stand in a clump staring at one sign then another then another. Noticing our apparent confusion, the makers of Dodge, Chevy, and Ford quickly decide to tap into a different emotion. We watch as a new sign is posted in front of each of the three trucks saying: Truck for men who really love America.

Hmmmm…

Well, now we’ve pretty much turned away from Toyota because we all want to support America. But, we still stand in confused clump, unsure of which truck to choose because they all claim the same superlatives. Noticing this, the makers of the trucks go to great lengths to show us how strong their truck’s frames are, and how they perform in crashes. They each post a third placard in front of their trucks saying: For men who love their families.

I’m sure you can all see the pattern here. I will not go further into the unending stream of wooden placards shown to us. The point, I’m sure, is obvious. If everyone is “the best,” then no one is.

So what does this teach us about marketing? I think it teaches us that what was revolutionary for Napoleon is now commonplace. Napoleon “thought outside the box” and chose to approach his men though different channels than just passing orders down the chain of command. Today, however, Napoleon’s tactics are very much “in the box.” As such, it is important that marketers pay special attention to how the competition is appealing to consumers; not to mimic it, but to intentionally take a different course.

This is especially true in online marketing where the ability to target consumer micro-segments is unprecedented. Find the people you want and then hit their emotions in ways that they haven’t been hit before. At first it is likely scary, just like it would be scary to tell Ford to stop fighting the “I’m more manly that you are” fight. But, if you take a second and step back, move outside the traditional marketing dogma under which you were trained, you will see the true genius of Napoleon: Approach people differently than they are currently being approached.

Be different. Prove your superiors wrong. Lead people to the actions you want them to take. Market like Napoleon.

The Wikipedia definition of Wikipedia reads: “Wikipedia’s articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and nearly all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Having steadily risen in popularity since its inception, it currently ranks among the top ten most-visited web sites worldwide.

In fact, Wikipedia is the 7th most visited website in the world, according to Alexa, with 52% of its page views coming from the English version of the encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the worlds biggest and most successful wiki, but there are thousands of niche wikis out there and due to their collaborative and social nature, they should be part of any social media marketing strategy.

Marketing on Wikis

• Many wikis let you make updates anonymously. Ideally, you should log-in and create an identity. Be honest and be yourself.
• Don’t use wikis for self-promotion. It is not intended for that and your entry will end up being deleted or at least edited.
• While you want your business or brand to be added, it is better to build out complementary and appropriate information as part of adding your business. For example, if you are a professional social media marketing consultant, you’ll want to add content to the definition of social media or the definition of marketing.
• It is OK to correct mistakes, it is not OK to remove competitors.
• When you add a new page, make sure you start with the template that is appropriate. If you make mistakes, other people will fix them, and if you spam with inappropriate content, other people will remove you.

It is important to have a clear picture of what wants to be achieved with wikis. The main professional aim on Wikipedia or other important wikis should be tracking and managing what is said about you, your brand or your company. At least in the case of Wikipedia, their links are far too influential for anybody to ignore its content, especially given the public’s misunderstanding of its liberal editorial policies. It is also a very good way to contribute your knowledge of your market or the focus of your business to the community. Wikis should not be looked at as a tool to generate links or to increase a website’s page ranking. In fact, all links on Wikipedia are “nofollow”, meaning that they are not counted as a link by Google or the other search engines, which use links as part of their ranking algorithm.

Wiki Etiquette

There is a set of unwritten rules that will ensure a successful use of wikis as marketing tool.The bottom line is that any significant wiki community will be very vigilant and strictly opposed to biased information. Any effort to enhance a Wikipedia listing should make sure that it aware of and follows the established guidelines. That said, here’s a guide to creating a new page in Wikipedia.

Niche Wikis

This is a short list of niche wikis, which can be relevant to specific businesses or brands:

• WikiTravel: the wikipedia of travel.
• Dealipedia: a business wiki for mergers, acquisitions, venture investments, IPO and other deals.
• LyricWiki: all the lyrics you can handle.
• WikiMapia: collaborative mapping.
• Wikia: community supporting the creation and development of wiki communities on any topic people are passionate about. Currently, they support over 6000 communities in more than 70 languages.

While wikis allow very little deviation from the established rules and customs, if you pay attention and follow the rules, wikis offer an extremely powerful forum for enriching the community and associating your online brand with intelligent and useful content.

Understanding how your target group (readers, customers, viewers, etc.) thinks and reacts to information is the first step in building a steady fan base.
A couple of months ago, Kevin Kelly wrote a very thought provoking post about the long tail and a base of 1,000 true fans. He states, that:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A true fan is – according to Kelly – someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.

This post makes a very good point on the role of these 1,000 fans, but does not discuss how can one build such a core of fans.
While reading Barry Schwartz’s book “The paradox of choice; why more is less“, I discovered valuable information which helped me approach this intriguing question.

Adaptation

Adaptation is an evolutionary theory referring to the way individual organisms gradually change and get more suited to their environment.

However, the theory of adaptation does not only apply on studies of evolution and the origin of species…it also applies to human behavior.
To put it simply, we get used to things and then we start to take them for granted. Repetition brings adaptation.

To a degree, this is necessary to create a sense of coherence and security; people need repetition to develop a feeling of safety.

But an interesting paradox has been observed: when people get used to a source of pleasure it stops being a source of pleasure.
For example, the pleasure degree of your first joy ride was much higher than the one of your 100th joy ride.

How to Build a Steady Fan Base

What can we learn about marketing from adaptation?

Balance is the key.

On the one hand you should follow a pattern. This could mean:

• using the same style of expression (e.g. same writing style, same directing style, same music genre, etc.)
• creating expectation (each broadcast should promise a new one)
• keep a steady publishing structure (e.g. new content every Monday and Thursday)
• refer to previous publications; your fans will be happy to find a point of identification (“Hey, I know that!”)

On the other hand you should renew sources of pleasure. For example:

• make something different once in a while (if you write a blog, post a video or a podcast). This provokes the expectation mentioned above.
• develop and expand your methods and them implement them to your pattern. (like in TV Shows: a new character is introduced and the becomes a regular member of the cast).

Conclusion

Building a base of 1,000 true fans is a very cumbersome process. It requires complete engagement, passion and vision. But as Kevin Kelly said, once you have this base you can make a living out of it.

Learning from the functions of adaptation and its paradox, can help you expand. Nine Inch Nails is probably the best example. Remember what they started almost a year ago, with ther ‘Year Zero Project‘? They got out of the norm by providing something completely different (an interactive campaign, where fans search for clues and participate in projects) and they have now implemented this pattern to their whole campaign, by providing new ways to the fans to participate. Now NIN fans expect new ways to participate in upcoming NIN projects.

Certainly, this equilibrium between repetition and innovation does not guarantee success, but is surely a major step to this direction.

We will be returning with additional posts on this subject so please subscribe to our feed to stay connected. As always, your feedback on the subject will help us expand the discussion.

So what do you say, are there other ways to build a regular fan base?