Hardwired for Speed

The Jerry Springer show is a perfect example of something beginning to plague social media marketers evermore.

There’s a first sentence in dire need of some explanation, you say? Excellent, here it comes.

Jerry Springer was a cultural phenomenon. His creation acted as a seminal moment in talk show history as it moved the peep show television format from mild to medium to hot to caliente! He pushed the envelope, gave people what they wanted and grew exponentially in popularity.

Until it just got silly. Until it got hard to believe that so many family members were engaging in the kind of lewd behaviors traditionally reserved for, well, non-family members at the very least. And, yet, even while nothing on the menu sounded that tasty, the beast created demanded feeding.

Anymore, I have to imagine that those stopping in for a taste are doing so primarily so they can say, “Well, at least I’m not like THAT…”

Springer fell victim to the demands that he created.

Social Media Marketers might not fall victim in exactly the same way. But they might be tripped up by the expectations of their promises and by the demands of a client-base that fails, at some level, to grasp the reality of this new marketing outlet.

Just because things can happen MUCH more quickly with New Media than with Old doesn’t mean they will. There’s still the bit about planning, execution, follow-through, metrics, feedback, revising, etc.

If at least some kind of room isn’t created for these realities, there’s at least some minor risk that New Media Marketing campaigns might, too, end up airing at 10 p.m. on local access TV.