Learning About Social Media from MacFarlane for You, or Your Brand

I guess it makes sense to start this blog with the topic that I struggled with many months ago when I decided I wanted to start taking part in the global online community. Social media has become a recent buzz word and while so many people are jumping in and singing the praises of blogs, twitter, and networks like facebook and linkedin, there are still a vast number of people who are still sitting on the sidelines looking on.

I found the hardest part about getting involved in social media is deciding how I wanted to portray myself. One's online involvement is a reflection of who you are and I constantly found myself shutting down ideas and essentially avoiding anything that had to do with social communities because I wasn't ready to commit to my digital self. I was unwilling to establish my personality, who I was, what I thought and believed in for fear of alienating people. I guess I thought my online, social self, had to be well liked and received by everyone.

Until I read an article in fast company about Seth MacFarlane and his shows--namely 'Family Guy.' To sum up, the article dubbed MacFarlane the content creation king of the new digital age for two main reasons. First, because his content is easily broken into bite-sized, digestible portions that can be shared and enjoyed across multiple mediums. Secondly, and here's is the key, because his content purposefully offends some groups he has developed an even stronger, more devoted fan base. [To the point where Google paid him $2 billion to create cartoons for their ad network.]

In other words, the trick to social media is to establish and target your content to a community, or not be afraid of the groups you exclude by virtue of what you are interested in contributing. It is not about mass appeal, but (no pun intended to my name) about tribal appeal. People seek and consume content that supports their own world view, so you are bound to appeal to at least some population of users in an online social community.

While many will say "Duh, that is what the social media revolution is all about!" I respond by reiterating that there are many people who are sitting on the sidelines, unwilling or unable to establish their opinion. It is the fear of the unknown that paralyzes them and me until I learned from Seth MacFarlane.

This learning also correlates directly to companies afraid of taking the plunge into social media. In this era a brand that wants to get involved must embrace its unique characteristics and allow that brand to be transformed by its follower. These are the new standards of branding 101.

What a lot of companies forget when it comes to getting involved in the social media revolution is that their brand has certain characteristics, and it is ok to exclude some people to make more ardent supporters for your product or service. 80% of sales comes from 20% of users (figures vary), so logic dictates that a blanket, mass, dry approach is not the way to go. Unfortunately, many brands that do have a social media presence tend to overlook the understanding that to be succesful they must target content that resonates their brand's voice. Creating generic, corporate, and sterile content in this realm is suicide, or at least grounds enough to be ignored.

So pluck up your courage and begin contributing to the global chorus. Or should I say cacaphony? We'll leave that one for now.

What does everyone else think? What drove you to contribute / why don't you contribute already? Do you need help getting started? Let me know.