First let me show you one of my favourite Mad Men scenes: click here.
Do you want to buy a Kodak's Carousel?
Who'd have thought that Mad Men's old/traditional marketing and advertising techniques would hold true in social media? Everyone is trying to sell you somethine online and offline. Business competition is no longer city/state wide. It's national and international. So how do you rise above your competition?
Where the battle can be won or lost in social media is generally in the content strategy of the business. Social media isn't a direct sell or constantly talking about your product. It isn't trying to post random funny photos of cats in the hopes that people will like, share, tweet, +1 etc your posts.
So what is social media?
What did you take away from the video?
For one, Kodak probably could have used Don Draper to possibly save them from filing for bankruptcy. However the underlying story from the message is to take your customer on a journey.
So what is social media? It is telling a story. We can all find techs and spec about products but does the general consumer even care about those details? Does that sell or make it better than another product? Or does the consumer care about how they feel when they buy your product/service? Tell your customers a story about your product and the lifestyle/community it represent.
Relate to the customers life explaining why your product will make their life better, easier, healthier or cooler. Customers want to feel as though the business understands them and their needs, as a business if you are able to obtain this then you will gain brand loyalty.
As a consumer you are no longer buying just a product you are buying the brand and the the lifestyle that it represents, so businesses stop continuously posting boring information about what you sell. Stop posting cute puppies. Expand the depth of your content strategy and think about who and why people buy your product/service. Start posting about lifestyle/community that is your product and what your brand represents. Then, and only then, will you be able to rise above the competition.