“Mayberry” has been used as a term for both idyllic small town life and for rural simplicity (for both good and ill). It’s a mindset of simplicity that refuses to accept change when applied to local city and organizations attempting to market themselves to the masses. Given the bleek plunge of the economy one would think that small communities would embrace the ease of technology to get the word out, alas many do not.
Social Media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business.
The main key to the use of social media is personalized content, or as I call it: Inform, Empower and Engage.
Inform – Give people clear, concise and compelling information.
Empower- Make people want to react to your information. Be personal not a stick in the mud. Making announcements is not empowering, it’s advertising.
Engage – Be ready to engage the people you have empowered. Respond in a timely manner. Do you like one dimensional conversations?
It seems Mayberry wants to focus on the grand pie made but not concerned if the members even like pie.
The Mayberry generation seems to carry a mindset of ‘You Can’t Say That!” in other words everything must be professional and passed with approval from Aunt Bea. The users of social Media do not want dry comments and proper conversation, the Net Gen wants to know the person not the objective. The net Gen wants the ability to contribute thier thoughts and ideas not be told how to act and respond.
Mayberry needs to stop controlling it’s simplicity of how they think things should be and what should be said, when and how. The Mayberry mindsets need to understand that social media is the ultimate barn dance and is open 24/7. The stump fiddles have been replaced by Ipods, the attendeees are no longer waiting for a favorite song, they are tuning into what appeals to them and responding quickly…to fast for Mayberry.
I’d like to read some ideas from people on how to get the Mayberry Mindsets to better embrace social media.
Interestingly, I have found in a rather short space of time on Twitter, that social media can be a fast track to some good business relationships – with people who actually act – not just talk about it.
In a link I just retweeted from a new Follower/Leader is an article about a city council in Oregon preparing to pay for a social media manager. Perhaps Mayberry will have to catch up with what some sections of the business world are moving to position themselves within. Old ways of doing business, in a new context. I can see when I attend the local Twitter meetings that we’ve started running, that there is a definite divide happening, separating ‘them in the know’ and those who are oblivious to the changes that are happening.
I suspect that the Corporates will be on board and well entrenched, before the average small business owner notices something is happening. Yet this may not be the case. Right now, mainstream media is covering Twitter, and bringing it to the attention of Main Street. Something is abuzz. And fortunately, the doors are wide open to anyone who wants to get amongst it.