Back in the 1980s, Roger Fulghum inked All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Do you remember reading it? It was very basic life principles put forth such as “share everything, play fair and don’t hit people.” I came across it painted on a plaque in a store recently and it made me wonder what other lessons from my school days could be applied to my world today. High school physics, for whatever reason, came to mind.
For a right-brained individual, physics was not easy, but my teacher Mr. Miller had a way of aligning life lessons with the laws of the universe. Three lessons from his class come to mind as a thoughtful reminder about how to good approach to social media marketing.
Social Media Physics
Social Media Marketing, Lesson 1
This lesson is completely unrelated to the curriculum of Mr. Miller’s physics class, but a recurring theme in class discussions and serves as a great starting point for putting all three of these tips into practice. Mr. Miller would carry around in his pocket, a piece of scratch paper, always recycled. On it he would scribble his daily to-dos. Mr Miller felt it was imperative to teach 9th-graders the importance of organizing our day to day life. (I’ve kept a list ever since Mr. Miller, you’d be proud) My point here is this, no social media success will come without jotting down a plan to keep reminding you to act.
Plan your approach, put it down on a calendar and commit to doing it everyday you can.
If the idea of list keeping stresses you out, I’ll share Mr. Miller’s secret. The first item on his list everyday was: to make a list. That way everyday at least one thing was crossed of that list and he felt productive.
Give it a shot; let the list be your guide. Ashley Zeckman from Top Rank Marketing has a great post about effective social media planning.
Social Media Marketing, Lesson 2
There are very few laws I recall from my physics class, sorry Mr. Miller. However, when it came to Newton, his laws of motion are on ready recall for me. Newton’s first law, perhaps the most recognizable states that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. The same holds true for social media marketing.
You have to get it in motion.
Get it going and keep it regular. Once you do, it’ll be hard to stop your exponential growth and returns. So make your list, and start executing the list. Tina Cook is a champion of this law in her post on social media marketing consistency.
Social Media Marketing, Lesson 3
Newton’s second law of motion is a bit less recognizable but perhaps the biggest take away from this little exercise. It states that the acceleration of a body is in tandem with the amount of net force. Ultimately, this little lesson works great in all avenues of life stating simply: you get out what you put in.
The more force, or effort you put into social media marketing, the more return you’ll see.
In a nutshell, here’s what I learned about social media marketing (and really any marketing effort) from my high school physics class.
- Make a plan. Build your list and remind yourself of your necessary actions.
- Get going. Just start doing it. The more you do it, the harder it is to stop it.
- Do more. As your “body” gets in motion, keep adding “force” for increasing returns.
Thanks Newton and Thanks Mr. Miller, I was paying attention.
How about you?
Any lessons you can tie from your school days to executing good online marketing tactics today?
Thanks for the interesting post Ryan. It is great to see that you learned key aspects of social media marketing through an every day experience. Plus, social media marketing is a very cost-effective way to reach a large target audience as well as a creative way to engage customers. But have you implemented a social media marketing campaign? I believe harnessing digital and social media marketing to the fullest requires true marketing ingenuity. As the Marketing Director of the Cisco Government Practice, I have found that deploying a digital marketing campaign in conjunction with conferences and events creates an interactive community for the user that increases interest and participation before, during and after the events. This enhances the full effect of the event, as the user does not forget about it after it has happened. Once again thanks for the creative post Ryan, I hope to people understand how to implement a truly beneficial marketing campaign through the use of social media.
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for the comment, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I have implemented several social media marketing campaigns in a variety of industries with differing objectives. I’m glad to hear you’ve had some success at Cisco. One of the key things I’ve learned from the campaigns I’ve driven is that while differing industries and objectives impact elements or tactics within the over all strategy, the foundational theory (some of which I addressed in this post) remains a consistent them to any successful social marketing endeavor.