Todayʼs social media pop quiz question: how would your marketing strategy change if your product was… you?
These days, people sell everything over social media, from ice cream bars (seen that Magnum chocolate Twitter campaign?) to apartments. But just a few years ago, shy girls and lonely boys around the world were using emerging technology (and what we called “Web 2.0”) to sell something much more personal — their own love lives.
On dating sites like The Spark, Match.com, and OK Cupid, singles pioneered social marketing techniques like browsing through friends of friends, establishing trust through personalized connections, and creating “shareable” content that would be just memorable enough for a reader to want to show her friends without crossing the line into trying-too-hard. But most of these folks werenʼt proud of their status as social trailblazers: in the early days of online dating, daters were often embarrassed to let anyone know that they had to “resort” to joining a singlesʼ site instead of finding a mate the old-fashioned way.
Considering, though, that my social circle has always been a bit on the nerdy side, quite a few of my friends were early adopters to the online dating game. And since I was a writer, reasonably outgoing for a geek, and, most importantly, a girl, I often ended up with the job of helping well-meaning friends to tweak and perfect their profiles. Not too surprisingly, the lessons we learned in those days about using the web to advertise yourself still hold true if youʼre looking to advertise a slightly less personal product. For example:
Give them some eye candy. A profile with no pictures sets off alarm bells — not necessarily that the poster is ugly, but that theyʼre not that confident in themselves, or worse, that they knowingly stretched the truth in their description. The same goes for the Facebook page, blog, or Twitter feed you set up for your product: it just seems more trustworthy when thereʼs more than just text to look at. Let them know youʼve got nothing to hide.
Have a sense of humor — but not at your own expense. “Donʼt say bad things about your product” seems way too obvious to earn a mention on a list of marketing tips, but you might be surprised how hard it can be to balance an earthy sense of humor with the realities of text-based online communication. Self-deprecating jokes that can be hilarious in person, especially with friends who know you really well, can come off as insecure and really off-putting in a profile description. In product marketing, too, you can joke about a lot of things, especially in casual media like Facebook and Twitter. But never joke about how terrible your product is. Just donʼt.
But donʼt be arrogant, either. Just last week, a friend of mine told me about turning down a suitor on a gay dating site because the gentleman went out of the way to mention his “extra large”… um… personality. Not only is that tackier than a giftshop at Graceland, itʼs also rude to use social media for blatant bragging. When your message basically consists of “Iʼm so great. Iʼm better than everyone else here. You all know you want me!”, youʼre not being social, youʼre just being kind of a jerk.
Show that you value other people. One of the most common fixes Iʼd have my friends make was to replace solo pictures with pics of the profile-poster having fun with friends — even if those shots seemed less flattering. People donʼt want to see some guy taking a picture of himself in his bathroom mirror, they want to see that youʼre a “real person,” with a real life, who cares about other people and will presumably care about his hypothetical date. Similarly, when youʼre trying to build a fanbase for your brand, going out of your way to showcase personal relationships with customers will take you far. Try posting “fan letters” or pictures that customers send you to show how special these relationships are.
And personalize everything. On a dating site, never send a “generic” opening message — always read the personʼs profile and find something unique to them to talk to them about, and lead with that. Donʼt say “Hi, you look like a really interesting person!” Say “I see you play the French Horn. I play the oboe! How cool is that?” That way, the receiver knows that sheʼs not one of a hundred people getting the same form letter. Similarly, when responding to a comment or Tweet from a follower, take some time to find out who that person is and where theyʼre coming from. That way you can build a personal relationship, and a reputation as a brand that genuinely cares about its customer base.
The story of my involvement with online dating has a very happy ending — a few years later, I settled down and tied the knot with a wonderful man I had met on an online discussion forum. By the time of our wedding, studies were showing that up to a quarter of new relationships were being started online. Of course, that didnʼt stop the minister from making a terrible pun in the sermon about how my husband and I had “clicked” when we first met. Groan. But by following the same etiquette and strategy that can land you a hot date, you can create a lasting brand reputation of charm, respect and customer care. And you donʼt even have to pay for dinner!
