Take the recent mayoral election in Amesbury and the results that many people said would not happen. A young and savvy candidate recognized the potential value in social media, identified channels used by Amesbury prospective voters, and connected with them. She was able to develop a presence with these voters, communicate her message effectively, win their trust and vote, and was elected Mayor of Amesbury, MA. One must applaud Mayor Gove’s awareness of current available campaign messaging and developing a connection with voters in a very savvy way. That approach is a lesson for businesses to learn from.
The incumbent Mayor, while popular and accomplished while in office, attempted old tooling and did not develop a social media presence. He had accomplished numerous important achievements, but people were not fully aware. While an unfortunate result for him and his supporters, it is the reality of running any type of a campaign and selection process. You must develop a familiarity with your potential customers – in this case residents. If you don’t, you risk the world just passing you by and tossing you aside. A harsh reality. But, at the same time, a decision process is carried out continually by consumers when making product choices.
This case is also true for businesses. A founder may think they have the best product on earth, have the best engineered solution available, obtained proven test case results, and even have some happy customers. But, if the founder is the only one aware of these qualifications, does not make the effort to share information with prospective customers, she will not generate sales and revenues. That product may die on the vine as the world moves forward. .......very fast. Social media can be the ticket to success and relevancy.
Morale of the story: if you underestimate social media and don’t leverage it, your business may be dead before you even realize it as an option.