“There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute”
– Hannum or Barnum?*
Even though historians debate about the origin of this well known quote, everyone has a sense for its reality. When we think of what drove the circus era, it was human curiosity fueled by promotion. Did the circus just locate on the edge of town, set up shop, and expect customers to come streaming in? Of course not, they did a lot of promotion. Before the circus came to town they had posters announcing their magic. Once set up, they teased their potential customers with a circus parade through the heart of town, giving glimpses of what great experiences lurked under the big top on the edge of town.
As we think about social media and marketing, we’re reminded of the public nature of social media. Most beginners to social media marketing have an apprehension to “broadcasting” their news to sites like Twitter and Facebook. The college frat stigma of Facebook still scares users. Horror stories of privacy breaches adds to their paranoia. At the cyber wigwam we have coined this phenomenon as “Blog-xiety.” That’s another post. Yes, we do not want to be careless about our posts. Remember though, that you can reach roughly 1/3 of all internet users on Facebook. In our face paced world we are far outpacing the world of P.T. Barnum. Currently, there are 243 users born every SECOND on Facebook. So our advice is to think of the circus train when developing your blog posts. Broadcast them to Facebook. Remember this is your chance to promote your product or service to those 14, 580 customers born every minute.
* those wishing to read about the great giant fake lawsuit, click here.