Foster Your Independent Thinkers and Let Go the Lemmings
Social media is a practice full of lemmings
If you've been online as long as I have, you probably have a strong sense of skepticism, and an even stronger sense of fatigue from the hollow copycat mentality and the seas of "me toos," with every idiot with a Twitter handle calling themselves a social media expert, and every dude with a website calling himself an SEO expert.I was recently asked why I have this mentality, and it isn't because I've been online since I was a teen (and now I have my own teen daughter and adult son, so that dates me and gives you an idea of my web life tenure). The real reason is because I've always been an independent thinker. Sure, every teen girl with an Instagram filter can share a regurgitated quote and feel like an independent thinker (eye roll), but in thinking about my fatigue regarding the "me too" folks, I realized that most people suffering this same fatigue share my sentiment.
I'm fatigued because I'm an independent thinker
In my first job with an upward trajectory, I was very, very young, and I had a regional manager at the nation's largest retailer who not only gave me several of my own stores as a general manager, but gave me a tremendous amount of autonomy. I was fostered as an independent thinker, and my RM took a very hands-off approach with me, while other GMs were micromanaged within an inch of their existence.What my boss saw in me and made a point to foster was that I was extremely detail-oriented and saw things as a consumer sees them.For example, back then, when a pallet of product was delivered, stores simply stacked them around the store, but I was allowed to experiment with taking a third of the pallet off the stack to generate more sales (it did, leading to other stores and competitors rolling out the same practice), or moving cash registers to improve consumption of high dollar items (it did, again, leading to industry practice changes over the years), or installing floor-to-ceiling glass in front of the store to showcase products to be seen from the street and increase sales (it did, and more changes came).
How this is going to make you more money
I'm not patting myself on the back. No, I'm pointing out how a massive corporation allowed a young pup to experiment, because I was obsessed with the tiniest of details, and I refused to do cookie-cutter things. I believe in a cookie-cutter template for franchises and corporate stores, but every demographic and every market is different - I can see when a store is merchandised from behind a desk in Portland to attempt to improve sales in Oklahoma City (it won't).In the marketing industry, too many copycatters are hired on, because they've duped a boss into thinking they know what they're doing because they've used a string of buzzwords they heard at a tech conference. This is why so many social media marketing campaigns have flopped, and will continue to do so - hiring someone that thinks they are great because they can replicate others' success guarantees failure.Hiring a contractor or staffer who is a true independent thinker obsessed with details and can see through the eyes of a consumer is key, but letting that person experiment is golden. What works in one market or with one demographic may not succeed with others.While giving someone carte blanche with your brand is never a good idea, what my RM did was empower me, and that is not a word I am fatigued by. Empower your team to experiment after they've asked trillions of "why is this done this way, can't we do it this way?" questions. It may take a few campaigns to strike gold, but let them dig instead of flailing above ground like the copycatters.I remain fatigued at the copycatters and refuse to hire them, as should you. I'm living proof that if your brand takes this view, the cash will come.