WIIFM?

(What’s in it for me?)

It’s a phrase we hear more and more often in today’s society. Kids expect payment in sweets for emptying the dishwasher and the likes of Orange (RockCorps) and Disney (Give a Day. Get a Disney Day) even have to bribe people into volunteering.

Popular theory points the finger of blame at digital TV and the interwebz. We’ve less free time than ever, but a greater choice of ‘stuff’ to fill it with. If it doesn’t make an instant impact, we’re off.

But why am I telling you this? Indeed, what’s in it for you?

Social media, as discussed in our earlier pub analogy, is about joining conversations and speaking to people on their terms, in their language. It’s also about (and I loathe to use this phrase) ‘adding value’. But I do mean adding genuine value, value appropriate to the situation. To do this you have to put yourself in the place of your audiences and ask – what’s in it for them?

WIIFM isn’t corporate information style-guided to within an inch of its life. If someone genuinely wants to read page after page of your latest press releases, they’ll go to your website and look at your news section. Verbatim copying and pasting of releases, into a blog or other feed, is missing the point and (most likely) duplicating your website. What does that offer a visitor?

Think about when people use social media and what they’re hoping to get out of it. Most companies block Facebook, Twitter etc, so most employees only access these sites at home – in their own free time. What you do in your free time – do you watch funny YouTube clips you’ve been sent, strain your eyes playing Bejeweled Blitz and enter the odd competition?

Probably. You do those things because there’s something in it for you. They make you laugh, you enjoy doing them, you might get free stuff. There’s no hard-sell, no preaching, no pressure.

That’s how you engage people with your social media. Not every post has to be fluff, of course, and it’s perfectly OK to post more heavyweight items since they offer value to readers too. Balance it out. But by drawing potential customers in through offering them something of value for free (a proverbial carrot of clips, relevant articles or prizes and samples), or inviting them to interact with you (polls, competitions or surveys) then you open them up to the wider world of your business. Not just them but their friends – they share your funny clip with their mates; their mates now know who you are. They retweet your article; their followers are sent to your blog.

And we’re back in the Newt & Cucumber again – the couple you initially struck up a conversation with might have no need for your product, but since they like you so much they’ll introduce you to someone who does.