Everyone is not equal. We're told we can be whatever we want, but we don't all get to be astronauts when we grow up. It's unfortunate for egalitarians to hear, but some people are a more valuable use of your resource than others, especially when marketing to them.
When brands first start to market themselves with Social Media, they falsely believe that "likes," "follows" and "impressions" are great indicators of success. Although that can be useful data, it's only as useful as it is to say "one million people drive by this billboard every day." It's not indicative of success, just views. Let me test you to illustrate my point with a made up restaurant brand called Badass Barbeque.
Which of the two scenarios is more valuable?
- Badass Barbeque opens with a general admission Grand Opening Party, inviting 300 potential customers excited to try the restaurant.
- Badass Barbeque opens with a closed event, inviting 50 of the most read BBQ food bloggers, Yelp! reviewers with Elite Status, and a couple of popular writers from the local newspapers.
What did you choose?
In scenario 1, the restaurant is exposed to 300 customers as opposed to only 50 in scenario 2 - more eyeballs means more exposure, right? Well, consider this: the 50 influencers you invited in scenario 2 may each have over 100,000 people that read their blogs, reviews or articles. These people create content that dedicated audiences depend on. They hang on their every review or article. They make decisions to go out to eat based on what these critics or reviewers say about the restaurant.
In other words, they have a huge voice, one that reverberates through their audience like an intense echo, spreading your message farther than 300 people randomly picked with an average of 27 "followers" on Twitter and 130 friends on Facebook (http://bit.ly/qPJX5B).
That doesn't sound like a lot of opportunity for your message to spread. You're going to hit an average of 8,100 users on Twitter and 39,000 on Facebook, if every person who came in shared their experience online. Only one of the 50 invites from scenario 1 will have at least 100,000 people on Twitter reading their posts. On Yelp!, you have the potential to reach anyone searching for a new restaurant by review or even through Google.
The point is stop wasting your Social Media time on reaching everyone. Having 10,000 people like your Facebook page has no impact in comparison to having your product reviewed by Dr. Oz. Klout is a great tool to identify who you should reach out to based on their audience, their influence over that audience, and the topics they are influential about.
Unless, of course, you like wasting time.