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With Mr. Espo’s (Nota Bene: yeah, I know it’s not your full last name, but to me you’ll always be @JeffEspo 🙂 ) upcoming nuptials taking up major mental and real time he’s allowed me the great honor of guest posting over here so you, his dedicated readers, have something to mentally munch on while enjoying your muffins and coffee.
Since, as PR pros, both Jeff and I have learned through the wise teachings of Social Media and Blogging Experts, that you all blog readers love mashups and Top X lists I present you with my own, Top 5 ways SM is like marriage. Hopefully this little list will come in handy in the coming days, weeks, months and years with the future Mrs. Espo. When you reach decades buddy — gimme a call and as one old married guy to another I’ll see if I’ve come up with anything new.
And so…
The Top 5 ways Social Media is like marriage:
1) There are no experts
Sure, there may be ‘marriage’ experts generically speaking, but no one out there is going to be able to tell you exactly how to run your campaign, erm — marriage, in such a way that it will absolutely 1000% (no typo) work each and every time. You’ve got the most experience handling your client and audience (fiancée, I mean fiancée) no one else can hand you the keys to the kingdom.
2) To make it work you must engage
You think courting and engagement were the tough part? Buddy strap on an extra set and get ready for the real climb. You’re now legally committed to doing things together, liking her friends, commenting on whether the jeans make her look fat (just in case – the proper answer is “No” after a pause so you it seems like you actually thought about it), etc. Before marriage it was like you were all alone on MySpace, now you’re FB friends — you’ve gotta care about the status updates.
3) Listen more than you speak
This one should go without saying — but you’ll learn more about your new spouse, and the conduct that is expected of you as prisoner….erm, husband, by listening more than speaking. You already know what’s going on in your head — listen, figure out what your spouse/audience wants to know, then and only then, muster up the energy to take appropriate action. You’ll be much happier and it’ll make you appear (and sometimes actually be) attentive.
4) It will all change in 2 months
Remember MySpace? No, really, think real hard, visit myspace.com to see if it even looks familiar. Marriage is similar. What works for you in week 2 definitely won’t work in week 20 and what works in week 200 may not even work in week 201. Stay on your toes, this is more like an ice floe than pavement.
5) Bring salt with you, use liberally: What you think are your biggest today won’t even be on your radar in a few months, much less years
Keep a weekly journal for this one — “Big Issues Mrs. Espo and I discussed.” Only start reading it on your first anniversary. See how many of those ‘big issues’ materialized into anything that made the time spent worthwhile.
When Cogette and I did our wedding registration we spent literally (and I mean that in the real sense not in the way it’s used on TV now) hours picking our ‘formal crystal.’ Let me say that again — hours. Hours I’ll never get back (yeah, I’m at least half to blame on that one though). Of our 12 service set we’ve seen 4 of the wine glasses – once. They’re in a warehouse, untouched, unused for nearly a decade (the why is irrelevant). You’re going to have some issue (or eight) that you’ll look back on and think (and perhaps even say) “WTF?!”
Stop every now and then and ask (yourself first, then your spouse) — “Does this really matter? Or is it a huge WOMBAT (Waste of Money, Brains And Time)?” You’ll be wrong half the time, but if you can stop yourself from going down that slippery slope there’ll be fewer chiropractor bills.
The SM analogy here — that one’s easy: Fan page count, RT count, follower count, who RT’d what Ashton said and how many followers does that schmo have? In the end, none of it matters. The most important metrics are the ones we can’t measure.
Congrats Jeff — welcome to the 2nd wildest ride of your life (Jay’s about to partake of the wildest), strap in and hold onto your hat.
Who is the PR Cog? According to the PR Breakfast Club Bios: Chief Bottle Washer, Editor [Editor’s Note: Yes, I’m the
one writing these witty (yes, damnit, they are witty) comments], Admin and general troublemaker. Maintains another blog for things not quite high-end enough for PRBreakfastClub.com.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by jeffespo, Christina K. Christina K said: RT @jeffespo: Here's a great guest post from @prcog The Top 5 ways Social Media is like marriage http://bit.ly/5rH1Pj #prbc […]
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jeffespo: Here’s a great guest post from @prcog The Top 5 ways Social Media is like marriage http://bit.ly/5rH1Pj #prbc…