An Important Note on the Abuse of the Phrase “Social Media Campaign”
Although I have used it before, I detest the word campaign in the phrase “Social Media Campaign”.
Conversations trump campaigns and the word “campaign” has a military undertone I’m not comfortable with. The people you’re supposed to be having a conversation with are not enemies to be raped, pillaged & plundered.
Although I will continue to use the phrase, it would be nice to find a more accurate way of describing how brands initiate conversations with true fans (see also: Seth Godin’s Tribes)
Until that happens, I will continue to use the word campaign because:
1. It’s pretty much a standard phrase when social media is a part of the marketing strategy, which means that:
2. It is the most efficient way of having conversations with other people involved in the social media landscape
I realize I’m deviating from the original reason these words began to be used in this context to begin with; and that is exactly what I’m saying we might need to do.
One conclusion I’ve come to so far is that although the Sun Tzu route may work in a certain context, there’s a need to draw a line somewhere so that that hawkish mindset doesn’t carry over to the conversations brands should be having with their fans.
Otherwise, we would just be paying lip service to the social in “social media”.
I will now proceed to shut up & return to looking for a word to replace “campaign”.
Any suggestions on where to begin?
Here are a few of the posts that have given me food for thought about the “campaign” part of the phrase “social media campaigns”:
Chrome + Art of Story Telling = Google is the web communication Sun Tzu
The Myth of the Social Media Marketer
Sun Tzu and the Art of Social Computing
Marketing warfare strategies (wiki article):
Sun Tzu Marketing (the book)
January 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Maybe the phrase can be “Social Media Initiative” as in starting conversations.