“If a brand is to really make a connection and to spark word of mouth, they must speak to the customer like a friend.”
~John Moore

You know, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and the others can be quite seductive.  You post something, get some responses, a few forwards and it feels like you’ve really accomplished something.  And you probably do accomplish… something.  But we don’t yet understand what a “like” means or if “thumbs up” means more listening.   At a recent radio conference Mark Ramsey reviewed a study that showed no correlation between Facebook likes and success.

In books like “The Passion Conversation” and “Face To Face,” and several independent research studies, it becomes clear that over 80% of word of mouth conversations happen in RLRT, or “Real Life, Real Time.”  That should get your attention.

So instead of social media, it’s digital interaction, and the smart people will be planning for the bigger picture rather than just the smaller picture one.  Effective must overcome easy.

I know online interaction is easier to do, and I know it reaches a lot of users, but it overlooks the human or people part of the equation.  The more effective interactions come from people to people efforts.

When Brant Hanson of Air1 decided to have the staff and band greet the listeners as they arrived for a concert, walking down a red carpet to their seats, that was human social interaction.  Those people didn’t just attend, they bonded.  When country stations do backyard barbecues with artists, they’re not just getting together for food, they’re bonding in a human way.

If you haven’t read “The Passion Conversation” you need to.  It’s written by an acquaintance of mine, and someone I’ve talked about in the past, John Moore, along with some really smart people from a group called Brains On Fire.  It really is about building passion, and that happens most often in RLRT.