"Wherever you are, that's the place to be."
Damone's attitude from Fast Times is one that brands can learn from as it relates to social marketing (well, at least this part). Your content should be unique, fresh and add to people's lives. It's okay to present it in a confident, active voice. Taking this approach to social will help engage your audience by keeping your brand's voice fun as well as informative. Social is a place where small businesses can compete on the same footing as big box brands. You have the potential to reach people and tell them why your brand is the one to watch.
"Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."
This quote, from Sofia in Vanilla Sky, speaks perfectly to the potential of social marketing. Is your brand presence stale? Not sure your product is resonating with your target audience? Social is the perfect place to test new campaigns, images, messaging, and essentially everything else. It's more cost-efficient than creating a new TV commercial, radio ad or billboard, and you get real-time feedback from your fans and potential audience members. Social makes it possible to change course and test new roads all of the time.
"Show me the money!"
When social marketing became legitimate in the digital marketing sphere, there was a perception that it was about warm and fuzzy things like awareness and conversation, and not about generating sales and leads. Customers were reluctant to jump into something that was not giving them a quantifiable return. Like Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire, they wanted to see the money. However, as marketers, we have progressed and honed our measurement techniques of the medium, we now see that social can produce leads and sales with the best of the them. It might take a little more diligence and dot-connecting, but it is worth it to see your return on investment. Now, social marketers are expected to produce reports for clients that highlights exactly how much social customers are contributing to business growth and brand advocacy; a quantifiable social strategy makes this possible.
"As someone once said, there's a difference between failure and a fiasco. A failure is simply the non-present of success. Any fool can accomplish failure. But a fiasco, a fiasco of mythic proportions. A fiasco is a folktale told to others that makes other people feel more... alive. Because it didn't happen to them."
Social can be dangerous too. Like Will explains in Elizabethtown, there are brands who make one slip-up and end up on the "What Were They Thinking" list of virtually every digital publication. It's important that you take extra precaution to not let a failure become a fiasco. There are a few things you can do to prevent this-like always changing your password, creating accountability in your company's social policies, and having a process for reviewing scheduled and off-the-cuff content.
"It's all happening."
Penny Lane was affectionately referring to Rock 'n' Roll's golden age in Almost Famous, of course, but right now "it's all happening" in social. This time in history is giving brands the unprecedented experience of connecting with their customers on a personal level and changing their businesses in accordance to what they hear. Aggregating social conversation about your brand and products can help you make better decisions about when to promote big sales, expose you to new target demographic tests, refine messaging according to evolving colloquial language, etc. The possibilities are limitless, and if you're not already riding the wave, it's time to catch up.