What Elvis Taught Us about Social Media | The King's Top Three Tips

One of the highlights of my college years is my road trip to Graceland. In hindsight, climbing into a car with two friends and driving round trip from Cincinnati to Memphis in about 48 hours is less than appealing. But the Elvis experience is still fresh in my mind for other reasons. In fact, Elvis’ life can teach us at least four things about social media.

“A little less conversation, a little more action”
One of social media’s unique abilities is how quickly it can be used to organize people into taking action. Elvis song reminds us that while counting things like re-tweets, Facebook fans and blog traffic can help show progress towards a goal – successful social media efforts start with a business goal in mind. This goal will drive what metrics are tracked. This ensures that ROI can be analyzed.

Live and In Person: The Ultimate Goal
Graceland docents relaying stories during the tour help detail how down to earth Elvis could be. Without visiting Graceland and seeing this in person, I’d never know this. The ultimate goal of social media is to facilitate in-person communication. Brands get so used to having a minimum of one-way glass between them and customers, they can forget that social media is a circuit. That circuit is completed by meeting customers at in-store tweet ups or other special events. It also fuels more conversation and content creation online. Consider that a Flickr search for Graceland finds nearly 87,000 pictures as just one example.

Burnin’ Love
While this classic Elvis tune refers to his love for a woman consuming him, it reminds us that you need passion to fuel your social media efforts. If your social media team simply views it as another job to do or your agency considers it an add-on service to keep clients and realize new revenue, it will show in the results. Social media requires participation. Anyone at their social media site of choice can tell who’s genuine and who’s rehearsed.

Elvis and social media do mix. But unfortunately, despite considerable mental effort, I was unable to attach a tip here that would allow me to discuss my favorite Elvis cuisine – the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Well, maybe I could point to mash-ups, but I’ll save that for another post.

ELVIS PRESLEY'S GRACELAND uploaded by craigis007.
Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.

Comments

[Mike Boehmer]

Clever way to make some key points. If you don't heed these, it could be Heartbreak Hotel for your PR efforts.

[echelonvalue.com]

Thanks for the wonderful insight on the parallel between Elvis and social media. The Echelon Value Consulting home office is located in Tupelo MS, about 2 miles from Elvis’s home that he lived in until his family moved to Memphis. The owner of Echelon has taken his own sons to Graceland and they are very familiar with the mansion. Just as we stand at the edge of a new economy and a global approach to doing business for our clients, Elvis was also an event that happened on the edge of new social mores and attitudes.
As this piece is being put together, Elvis is playing as the background music in our office, with no complaints from the staff. Just as social media started slowly, trying to find its niche and then exploding to the point that we use it as a tool in our business every day, so did Elvis. From a 9 year old singing “Ole Shep” at the county Cow and Poultry Fair, to the greatest musical performer in modern history.
Again, thanks for the great piece on Elvis. When you have the opportunity, come back to Memphis, Mr. Huggins (0wner) will gladly roll out the blue suede carpet for you and show you some of the highlights of Memphis. Also, don’t forget about our blue suede Friday’s @xm channel 18, with Argo on the blue suede air chair.

[Kevin Dugan]

Thanks Mike! And thanks to Echelon as well. I'd love to make it back down there. Will look you up if I do.

[Promotional Products]

Wow... who knew the king was so wise when it came to Social Media... I love it, especially "A little less talk and a lot more action." I rarely see action through Social Media. Fantastic post!

[Phil-Am OSI]

Yeah, it's wonderful. Great post, thanks for sharing this!