Educating Our Way Through Social Media Despair

Earlier today I clicked on this link to Amber Naslund's post on Altitude. (Thanks to @TimJahn for tweeting it.) Her question: Why do social media marketers continue to seek hard and fast answers for social media success?

Anyone who's ever launched (or tried to launch) a social media initiative has undoubtedly sought firm answers, only to be frustrated by the recurring and entirely unhelpful non-answer of "it depends."

So why do we keep looking? Is it because we need people to do our thinking/adventuring for us? Or that we don't want to be accountable for mistakes or lack of measurable results? Or is it something different?

For a variety of responses I invite you to read the comments on Amber's post, "The Quest for Firm Answers." But since you're reading my blog for the moment, here are my thoughts:

I like to think of social media as akin to a fitness routine. Just as some people use exercise primarily to lose weight, bulk up, or improve their overall physical well-being, different companies are going to use social media for a variety of different objectives, such as brand building, improved customer service, and overall conversion.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to exercise, and there also isn’t one for social media. But, for a novice in either area, a set of initial guidelines can help people get more comfortable with a routine and the equipment they need to use. In time, each person who is serious about getting the results they want will figure out how to customize their experience to reach their goals, but without a basic idea of where to start, a good portion of people will get too frustrated at the onset to ever start at all.

The point of having “rules” or a “recipe” becomes less about guaranteeing results and more about getting people active in the first place.

Therefore, I don’t think the rules people crave come as a result of cowardice or not wanting to be accountable. It’s about relieving some confusion at the onset of a major undertaking. As long as people understand this both when giving and receiving advice about social media, our community of social media marketers will grow, and grow stronger, in time.