by Terrie Ellerbee/associate editor

It’s not about “doing” social media, it’s about “being” social.

That’s what Jesse Spencer, social media manager for The Integer Group, told FMI Midwinter attendees.

“Everything else can be a marketing channel,” Spencer said. “Social media is not a marketing channel. It’s a communication channel, and it’s not a monologue, it’s a dialog.”

And another thing, people don’t go to YouTube to watch commercials, Spencer said.

“A lot of times I think brands and retailers have this idea, ‘well, we spent so much on our commercial, let’s throw it up on YouTube and maybe it will go viral.’”

That usually is not the case.

Social media isn’t just for kids, either.

The largest demographic on social media is the over-35 age bracket. It is estimated that in 2013, 50 percent of everyone on social media platforms will be older than 35.

The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council is putting together a white paper on social media. It is releasing the paper in five parts because the topic is so big, said Cathy Burns, president, Food Lion Harveys and Reid’s.

Burns describes it as an “actionable” paper.

“Our commitment to you is to produce something that you in your organizations can actually act on,” she said. “That’s a guiding principle for us.”

Online and offline worlds

The first thing to understand is how integrated into people’s lives social media has become.

“I sleep with my smartphone under my pillow every night,” Spencer said. “I don’t have an alarm clock. I use my phone as my alarm. At night, sometimes it will buzz and sometimes I will look at it if I can’t sleep. In the morning I have to swipe my cell phone to turn off the alarm, and immediately I’m that close to a portal into the social world.”

Before his feet hit the floor, he checks Facebook and Twitter for updates from friends and finds out what is happening around the world.

“My social behavior is closely tied to the proximity of my cell phone because it’s so close to me at all times,” Spencer said. “It’s in my back pocket when I’m at work or it’s in my ear when I’m in the gym serenading me, at night when I’m watching TV I’m playing Scrabble or Words With Friends, it’s in my lap. It’s always there, and so I’m always connected.”

He said the reason he’s so engrossed in social media is because “literally everyone in my life is engrossed in this world.”

He said to think of social media as being something like high school because people self-select different subgroups. Rather than jocks and nerds, there are “bonders,” “sharers,” “creators” and “professionals.” Many in that last subgroup use LinkedIn more heavily than Facebook or Twitter.

Social media is like high school in another sense, too, Spencer said.

“Boring people are often overlooked and fun, exciting people attract a crowd. It’s no coincidence that CNN has only 3 million fans, while Lady Gaga has 48 million.”

In short, the “social” part is nothing new.

“It’s just that we’re now giving people the technology to put themselves into these subgroups that they’ve always done since high school,” Spencer said.

Burns said the retail council wrestled with trying to understand why people spend so much time with social media. Only a few of the 24 council members have a Facebook page, she said. (Burns’ 70-year-old mother has one.)

Spencer said humankind has moved from hunter-gatherer times sitting around the fire pit to gathering around the water cooler. Modern man has laptops, cell phones and everything is mobile, but in the end, it simply is human nature to connect.

There are differences in human connection on social media. For one thing, in real life, people have strong ties with some individuals and weaker ties to others.

In the social media world, a person can have a weak tie to a person, but share his or her passion for something that connects them.

Brands and retailers can be among those weaker ties if they learn to connect and be relevant in consumers’ lives.

“The key is you have to offer great content fast and better than any other medium, Spencer said.

Spencer pointed to Whole Foods Market as an example of a retailer doing social media well.

“They’re not saying buy this olive oil,” Spencer said. “Instead they are really getting people excited about the lifestyle that you can have if you shop at Whole Foods. If you shop at Whole Foods you can have this lifestyle where you have these great Caprese salads at a dinner party, where you’re recycling, where you’re being involved in these philanthropic efforts, so it’s creating that lifestyle as opposed to pushing brand messaging.”

Burns said retailers and brands have to be “meeting consumers where they are,” and they are on social media.

The introduction and parts one and two of the five-part white paper are available for viewing at www.CCRRC.org.

The work is about simplifying social media, demystifying it, she said, “so that it really makes sense. The opportunity it already has created for our industry is incredible.”

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