The late Paul Harvey, the noted radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio Networks was famous for giving people “The Rest of the Story.”
Harvey was similar to today’s blogger in many ways and gave my young ears access to news content one couldn’t find anywhere else. He was like Fark or Twitter in a sense. Paul Harvey had it first, and he delivered it better than anyone. The anticipation for “The Rest of the Story” segment which always came at the end of his broadcast seemed to keep listeners tuned in for the entirety of his monologue.
Page 1.
Have you heard the recent Constant Contact ad? The radio has been constantly hammered with ads from Constant Contact promoting their “social media e-mail” product. The ad says, “Constant Contact harnesses the power of social media for your business, so that your message can get social, fast.” The ad goes on to further suggest that you can push your email message out through social media with a share button on your email products from Constant Contact. The call to action drives people to this Web page.
While share links have been around for a long time – I’m guessing four years or so, no major email marketing services company like a Constant Contact has really found a way to incorporate it into their offering. So this is very smart, and it begs the question, “Why hasn’t anyone done this on a large scale already?”
More power to Constant Contact for giving their clients the ability to share content via social platforms. We provide share links on our blog and recommend that our clients provide sharing tools on a variety of levels.
Page 2.
Let’s be clear here. It is not Constant Contact’s job to tell the entire social media story. Constant Contact is selling a product and they seem to be doing quite well. But Constant Contact’s marketing treats social media as an equal to the antiquated idea of standing by a fax machine blasting out press releases. Small business owners looking to “get into social
media” might be confused if all they hear is “part of the story.” They might also think that by doing part of the story, they’re doing all they need to with social media. That would be a mistake.
Constant Contact clients should check out Constant Contact’s social media webinars with social media heavyweight, Brian Solis and a guy named Mark Schmulen, the Social Media Director for Constant Contact. They should ask these guys questions and beg to hear the entire social media story, not just part of it.
The other part of the social media story has been well documented on this blog and countless others. But truly making social media work for you involves:
- LISTENING – to customers and prospects
- SHARING – not just your own content, but the content of others
- ENGAGING – with those who engage with you
And now you know, the rest of the story.
Good Day!
