Corporate Blogging: It's Not Me, It's You.

Byron sent me a link yesterday to the very recent launch of the SeaWorld San Antonio blog. SeaWorld San Antonio is diving jumping into social media as a major marketing push. I am very excited to see any company get behind social media and from everything I can see, they have their full staff on board (which is very important) and they are in it for the long haul (which is equally important).

After watching the video on their second blog post, however, I have a bit of concern about how well their blog and other social media efforts are going to work for them. My concern is not about a lack of enthusiasm or participation. It appears that's all there, and the communication director should be commended for that. In fact, in many organizations that's the hardest thing to get.

My concern, then, is more strategic in nature for SeaWorld San Antonio. What bothers me about the video is that the interviews with the SeaWorld staff seem to have, in my view, an underlying faulty assumption that people care about what they do.

It's Not You, It's Me (except in social media)
If you're a Seinfeld fan you've inevitably seen the "it's not you, it's me" scene. As funny as it is, it's exactly the opposite in social media. In social media, particularly in corporate blogging, podcasting, video, etc., it's not about you and your company. Not all the time anyway. It's about giving the right people something they deem valuable.

I just think companies assume people are more interested in them than they really are and don't feel like they have to earn the attention they desire. Social media works when you earn and retain attention, and that is best done by not making it about you (all the time) and adding value to the people you want to reach.

It's entirely possible SeaWorld San Antonio is all over this and I just had a skewed perspective when I read the post and watched the video, but I suspect this is a bit of a strategic shift they'll need to make to really succeed with their social media strategy. I recommend they, and any company, remember these three things:

• Social media tools like blogs and video are primarily for content. Conversation is secondary.
• Social networking tools like Facebook are primarily for conversation. Content is secondary.
• When you are creating content, use the Old McDonald approach. That will ensure you add value to the people you want to reach.

I hope SeaWorld San Antonio does well. If they do, they'll become another great example of what social media has done for companies. Every company just has to remember that it's not about them primarily. It's about you.