I was having a conversation with friends about the iPad the other day. A revolutionary product that has very little true significance in terms of necessity for advancement of productivity, yet will once again change the way we use media. One friend brought up a point, that hit me like a ton of bricks... an "Aha" moment if you will, that to me spoke more about the idea of social media in general than about the iPad alone.
His thought about the iPad's usefulness in a nutshell was this:
People who spend the majority of their day behind a computer, do not want to go home and "play" on a computer. Or rather they DO, because they want to consume media, but it needs to be different in some way... Enter the iPad.
What strikes me about this tweener device is this backlash of sorts to the trend towards a paperless society. Apple has in essence said, you still don't need paper, but we're going to give you a tactile user experience more than just typing keys on a keyboard. Now you can flip virtual pages, browse a website by clicking links with your fingers, moving around the page, zooming in zooming out, etc.
I work behind a computer pretty much all day. When I sit on the couch at night to watch tv, and want to tool around on the internet, my only option is the family laptop. Which is fine, but reminds me of work I could be doing, thus not appealing.
iPad, different story altogether.
Which brings me to social media. Social media does not generate tangible sales. Your presence on twitter or facebook or YouTube however, might. I have a number of clients who can't understand the who/what/why of twitter or facebook, because at the end of the day, you will likely NEVER see revenue coming directly from your being there. To simplify: in and of themselves, social media are NOT a revenue generator.
Here's the caveat and where they become like the iPad. Social media is the backlash at the depersonalization of a paperless/computer-based society. It is an effort by people (more isolated than ever) to reach out... and in terms of business, learn more about who they are buying from/ consuming media from. And in that way it is a very valuable tool. Social media affords you the platform to be more than a logo and website. It allows you to connect with consumers, to affect the way consumers view you and your brand. It's making the connection that you make when you walk into a store and meet the owner, and over time learn the story behind the people who deliver the goods you consume.
Embrace it.
