Intimacy, What We Need and Want in Social Media?

Posted by: Dallas J. Moore | Posted on: December 23rd, 2011 | 0 Comments

We believe the next level for social media is intimacy. A strategy not focused on numbers, but focused on time. How much time do you spend with your biggest fans and evangelists? Take that number and compare it to the amount of time you spend on just the community. One of the reasons for using social networking is to build relationships, so be personable about it. Get to know people’s names, hobbies, habits, favorite things, etc. The more you know about them, the better you can communicate with them, and the bigger fans and evangelists they will become.

Social media has changed in so many ways in the past year, even the past six months. These changes have been constant for several years: new social networking channels, new apps for your mobile phone, more research and studies, and most importantly, more brands, businesses, and people joining in.

It seems like for many, the focus has been about numbers; how many people you have following you, have liked your page, how many people hit your website, like your posts, comment on your blog, etc. We’re not saying that numbers are bad, if fact, they are great. Numbers never lie, this is a truth. We don’t, however, believe that numbers are everything. In social media and social networking, it’s about building relationships and networking. Well, numbers and people are two very different things. How you analyze numbers is very different from how you do people. They are not one in the same, they are different.

As humans we thrive in communities, we survive and do better with other people around. It’s part of human nature. So when we talk about social media and social networking, we are more concerned with the interaction, the engagement, and the relationships, not just the numbers. People don’t want to feel like they fit into a place with 1,000 other people, because they are not identical to the other 1,000 people. Everyone, to a degree, is an individual. People have different needs and wants. We have to cater to the individual and the community, not just the community.