A few months ago, one of my esteemed fellow columnists outed himself as a dog person and wrote a column about his dog, Toffee.
The internet and social media, though, as we know only too well, is all about cats. My column this month then is both a necessity and a public service, because it sets the balance right and provides you with useful, albeit cat-centric, information about managing social media activities.
My cat doesn’t actually have a name. Like all good cats, I didn’t pick her; she picked me. She just took up residence in my garden one fine day last year and hasn’t really left since. I considered calling her “Facebook”, but it got too confusing when the wife kept shouting: “Get that Facebook off the sofa!”, so in the end, we settled for “Cat”.
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Recently, Cat and I were sitting in the garden contemplating life, the universe, and everything, and it occurred to me that you can learn a lot about managing social media activities from watching cats.
All cats come running when you rattle the cat food container, but getting them to interact with you outside feeding times can often be tricky. It’s easy to attract Facebook fans or Twitter users with promotional offers or through advertising, but not so easy to build long-term relationships and engagement.
It is your guests and consumers who decide when — and if — they want to engage and interact with you, and all you can do is hold out your hand and offer something that adds value to their lives.
You don’t own a cat, it owns you. Likewise, you’ll never own most of your company’s social media platforms, fans, and followers, so it’s key to drive referral traffic to your owned properties like your website, microsites, or mobile apps.
Cats can sit in the same spot for hours, but they never drop their guard; very few things escape cats, even if they look like they’re sleeping. Your social media listening activities should be stealthy and cat-like.
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