Ever see a train go by…everyone has at least once in their life. If it was a nice long train, you noticed the red ones, blue ones, orange ones, new ones, old ones, specialty cars, and of course the caboose. It was fun watching it go by. It was entertaining. It was colorful.
But one comment everyone makes when they see the train go by…
“I wonder what’s in those cars.”
It’s a mystery, we wonder, we guess, we ponder what the train could be carrying and where it is going. It’s the mystery of every train and every car on the train.
Social Media Tools are just like the cars on the train…only we call them facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and over 300 more just like these…just like the cars on the long train. We see them on the internet and ask the same question…
“I wonder what messages these tools have in them.”
Social Media Tools are just like the cars on the train…it isn’t about the cars…they are just “shiny objects” going by us on a daily basis. What is valuable, interesting, thought provoking, and helpful is what is in the cars…the cargo and the messages they are bringing to us.
If the messages (like the cargo) are garbage, we ignore that particular car. If we kept seeing the car carrying garbage, we would eventually stop watching and wondering…we would know it isn’t worth waiting to see what’s in the cars. We would ignore the content.
What is inside the “cars” on your “social media train?” In the end, that’s all that really matters to your audience. We don’t really care about the color or age of the cars any more…we care about what they are carrying. If they carry garbage, we ignore them…we call that “promoting your company” today.
But when the car has something that is very interesting, exciting, and helpful…we call that “engaging with your audience” today. This is what gets read, consumed, and ultimately shared with thousands of others who are also interested in the content inside the cars of your train.
And your train is the same as everyone else’s…it’s just a bunch of cars (the same social media tools everyone else uses). It’s what’s INSIDE THE CARS that matters to the audience. Ship them garbage, they won’t care about the train any longer (your audience leaves). Ship them something that is exciting, interesting, and helps them in whatever they are doing and they can’t wait to see your car over and over again (your audience is becomes both loyal and an advocate).
What is in the cars on the train you are sending down the tracks to your audience and why would they care? This is the question every leader should be asking…not the color of the cars in our train. When leaders start asking the right questions, they help their teams focus on the right issues…the message…not the tools.
