Social Media is awesome. Transformers are awesome. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

Lessons can be drawn from anywhere. Not long ago I remembered an old poster titled ‘Everything I need to know about life I learned in Kindergarten’. I also stumbled across one of my old G1 Transformers toys the other day. These two memories combined in to the inspiration for this post. There are some great pearls of wisdom that can be drawn from the epic struggle of Autobot vs. Decepticon, many of which can be applied to your approach to Social Media marketing. Here we go…

1 – More than meets the eye.

Ah yes, the ever-famous tagline of the Transformers franchise. It’s simple message: Don’t always believe things are how they look on the surface. The perfect example of this is the typical ‘Twitter is useless’ or ‘Facebook is for kids’ stereotypes we hear all too often. A deeper look at Social Media reveals that there are mountains of helpful information being shared all the time on Twitter, and Facebook is proving to be one of the most powerful relationship-building tools businesses have ever seen.

The Lesson: Never assume that first-glances tell the whole story.

2 – Never underestimate the little guy.

Bumblebee and Laserbeak were arguably the least ‘powerful’ Transformers in the series, and yet many episodes saw these little guys play crucial roles in the outcome of the battles. They had unique skills that they could bring to the table, just like the lesser-known or smaller Social Media tools. Just because a Social Media tool doesn’t have hundreds of millions of users doesn’t mean that you should ignore it. The more options you give your audience to connect with you, the more they WILL connect with you. By limiting your audience to only a few channels, you’re also limiting your ability to hear what they have to say.

The Lesson: Recognize the benefits to every tool you have available.

3 – Your success depends entirely on your team.

Every time the Decepticons started out a new plan, it went really well…..at first. Inevitably though, their infighting, aggressiveness, carelessness, and general contempt for everyone surrounding them led to their failure. Social Media communities don’t tolerate those individuals who attempt to game the system, speak in condescending tones, and generally just act like jerks. The keys to success In Social Media are respect, honesty, and a genuine desire to be helpful, just like the Autobots.

The Lesson: If your team is full of jerks, don’t expect to do well.

In short, if you recognize all the real benefits of Social Media, make use of every option you have available, and approach it with the right attitude, you’re well on your way to developing an effective Social Media marketing strategy. It may seem like simple, obvious stuff, but all too often it’s the simplest lessons that get ignored.

Pics linked from: http://tfwiki.net/