Social media still doesn't work without good content!

While it may be all the rage and in fact even critical to an organisation’s success in the year 2010, planning and implementing an effective social media strategy still plays a distant second place to the role of having good content.

Take a look at this year’s Australian Federal Election so far; The glitz and glamour of social media seems to have faded since the last, whereas in 2007 it was all the rage.

Cast your mind back to that previous election and the catchcry of ‘Kevin07”. The story of the elections was Kevin Rudd and his Twitter feed, and how he was communicating with new voters by speaking to them in the language of Generation Y. Politicians had never done this before. Going back to my uni days I seem to recall this as Marshal McLuhan’s “the media is the message” mantra from the 1960s – If you know how to use the right media then you’re already halfway through to mastering effective mass communication.

This year, it’s a given that every election candidate has their own Twitter feed, Facebook page, MySpace and so on. We’ve never seen Social media campaigns to this extenet in Australian politics before. The TV networks are gearing up with their own 24-7 coverage models which include variations of TV coverage, Twitter feeds, mobile applications (iPhone, Android AND Java are catered for), oh and of course those long forgotten media - the websites as well. 

This is truly ubiquitous media – all the information about the election we want and need in any form that we prefer.

So why on earth is nobody interested in this election? Love him or hate him, Mark Latham had a point the other night on 60 Minutes about the donkey vote. It really is one of the most uninspiring elections I’ve seen, even with the rise and rise of social media strategies to support mass communication campaigns.

Whereas Kevin Rudd in 2007 had a number of big issues and a ticket of significant change to deal with – climate change, the stolen generation and other big issues that really appealed to the masses, a lack of genuinely captivating content from the candidates in 2010 has reminded us of what anyone who has ever tried to sell an idea or a product to someone else knows: If you haven’t got a good product, then no one is really that interested.

Worth keeping in mind the next time you sit down to plan a social media campaign for your business or for yourself. I’m no expert but all I know is: 'These Romans, they are mad!'

Deliriant isti Romani