Sometimes a tiny note can be more efficient than social media.

Today, almost every small company has a social media precense. Social media fascinates us all because there is still much to discover and new ground to brake. We want to embrace it totally. Immediately. It is however important to remember that social media is not automatically equal to marketing. In social media discussion forums I sometimes get the impression that social media is seen as a custom-made marketing tool: How can it be used? How effective is it? How can it be analysed? How much should we budgetize for social media marketing?
But social media are not custom-made for marketing purposes. It is new and cool, but as always in markeing we need to focus on who we want to communicate with and why. The wide range of social media allow most companies to find something that fit their communication, but social media do not necessarily fulfill all the company's marketing needs.

Social media is not exclusive, sometimes a hand written note can be a better way to reach out:

In Gothenburg in Sweden I saw all those spades in a sand pit. On each spade there is a note attached saying that a daycare nearby are having some places open for new children. It is a small local parent run daycare, that value engagement and  communication. Those parent run daycares are quite popular so they do probably not want to open up their communication to wide. But they want to commnuicate with an engaged parent living nearby, probably on maternity or paternity leave spending the day with their child in the sand pit. Quite a good idea I think!  


    

If people don't come to Facebook, let Facebook come to the people

I have now relocated to Zurich, Switzerland, and haven't had much computer time lately. But you don't necessarily need to be connected to get into social media networks. One day when I was walking down the Bahnhofstrasse, the big buzy shopping aorta in my new city, I passed a "Facebook Photo Box" that caught my attention. The clothes store "Big Boyz" has placed a "FOTOBOX" in their shop-window. Bypassing people can pose for a photo that will immideately be uploaded on the Big Boyz Facebook site as well as on the shop's website. They call the project "Big Züri Smile" and mean that it gives the whole world the possibility to get a vision of the Züri-style. "Real time. Real cool." And it is really cool! When visiting the Big Boyz facebook fanpage and website I see that I am not the only one who likes the idea. Over 2000 people have uploaded pictures where they are posing to show their best "züri-style".Unfortunately the FB fan page has a lot left to wish for and the Fotobox idea could be drawn a lot further, but the basic idea is really good. As the "züri-style is spread over the world" the Big Boyz is generating trafic to their website and gaining new local customers.

Wouldn't this be a great idea for an opera house, a theater or a cool art gallery!? Place a Fotobox in the foyer and let people take their picture, tag it, and click: their networks will know that they have been to a certain performance or a vernisage before they have even left the building. I think that a Fotobox would be actively used because it is a fun, and also, people generally want to get the word out when they have been to the theatre/opera/art exhibition and gained some cultural capital, n'est-ce pas, Bourdieu? Great way to get the word out!