Different Types Of Social Media Video
From The Social Media Road Trip Workshop
April 9, 2012
By Kevin McIntosh
Just what is “social media integration?” I bet you don’t know what you think you know.
“You don’t know what you don’t know.
Before I ask you to check out my workshop on integrating social media, I have something I want to share.
There are things you don’t know about people, business, and yes, even how to integrate social media or what social media integration really is. And in fact, you don’t even know about those things you don’t know about.
I know this isn’t a simple 5 things you need to know about social media blog post. It’s gonna take longer than 30 seconds to read. But it will be worth it. So please focus for a couple minutes…
Remember at that point in your life, probably some point in your teens or early 20′s when you were fairly convinced you had the world totally figured out. But for those of you who’ve moved a few years (or maybe just a few days) beyond that, you soon discovered not only did you not have the world figured out, there were complexities to living in this world that were not even on your radar.
So here’s my question to you. What makes you think you have it all figured out now?
Moment of truth here… you don’t (hopefully that’s more of reminder and not a shocking revelation). None of us have it all figured out.
Going back to social media. Last week I saw a tweet saying “What is social media integration?” The tweet included a URL to the tweeter’s blog post of the same title. So I get to the blog and start reading this person’s definition of social media. This person by the way is someone who made a living advising clients on matters related to design and social media.
So the blog post shares examples of social media integration. The problem was, this designer/social media pro had totally gotten it wrong. She wasn’t even in the right ball park.
Now how did I find this individual on Twitter? Because early last week I started thinking about this topic of “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And it hit me. Social media integration is a part of social media that most people get wrong.They assume they understand it because if they’ve had any previous experience with concepts like “brand integration” they assume it’s similar, just with social media.
Nuh-uh. Nope.
So a quick little search of that term on Twitter and within seconds I had a catch on the line.
Right now, the big conversation among social media thought leaders for what will happen in 2012-13 with social media is integration. And a recent survey (sorry I don’t have it handy right now but can track down if you request) shows a very small percentage of companies that are actually implementing social media are actually integrating social media throughout the organization. My theory is they don’t even know about it. They too are probably assuming it’s similar to brand integration, thinking it refers to something like “put your Facebook page link on everything from your blog to your receipts.”
And thus, they are missing some of the greatest opportunities that social media marketing offers.
I wonder what will that CEOs of those companies will do when he/her discovers what social media integration really is. And I wonder what the conversation will be like between the CEO and the CEO’s individual who sold him on social media integration as putting the Facebook page on everything from the blog to receipts when the real truth of what integration is.
You don’t know what you don’t know. Think about it.
Do you know what integrating social media is? If not, then I would encourage you to check out my workshop. It’s all about how to integrate social media – and it’s online and on-demand. Professional grade training. Check it out. And keep coming back here to the blog. Thanks everybody.
-Kevin