What Darth Vader Taught Me About Social Media
May 24, 2012 Tags: darth vader, SMNoob, Social Media, star wars
Category: SMNoob 1 Comment 
photo: Accretion Disc
Well for starters, how do you like the new design? It’s more or less an update to the previous theme that turned out to be backwards compatible so I didn’t have to mess around with re-configuring everything. I’m testing it out for work but I like it so far. Very clean, very easy to use. *UPDATE* I was wrong. I wanted to leave the new theme up long enough for you guys to see it but it messed my site up so badly that I had to go back to the old theme. That is why I test things here before I use them for work. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog. So, I realize that most of my posts for the last few weeks have been all InRetroSpection, but this week I have gotten back on the writing horse so here we are.
I like LOVE Star Wars. Pretty much everything about it not named Jar-Jar. Fascinating to me is the story of Anakin Skywalker, who would become Darth Vader. Keeping up with my theme of relating things to topics you wouldn’t expect them to be related to, I want to show you what Vader can show you about social media.
- Good isn’t always good. Anakin was a great Jedi. He was a good guy. He eventually became bad. Very bad. What you’re doing right now might be good but it’s going to take work on your part to keep it from turning to the Dark Side.
- Devotion. I quote, “Your sad devotion to that ancient religion…” Well, it wasn’t sad. Vader believed in what he knew to be true didn’t let anyone tell him otherwise, even if he had to choke his way through some dissenters. I’m not suggesting you choke anyone but if something works for you, don’t let anyone tell you shouldn’t be using it. Different things work for different campaigns.
- Don’t get arrogant. It’s one of the things that lead Anakin to the Dark Side. He could not believe that he wasn’t ready for greater things in the Jedi order. He thought he was more powerful than anyone, even the Emperor when he finally turned. While I’m in Star Wars mode, let me give you this piece of advice. “Don’t get cocky, kid.” You will, if you stay the course, find success. Your campaigns will produce fruit and you’ll start to see your own popularity rise. That’s wonderful, but keep your head on straight. If you start to think of yourself as the lord of social media, you’ll start to push people away because you’ll lose what made your campaigns great to begin with. YOU!
- Family is important. It was to Vader. When the sand people killed his mother, he went nuts and slaughtered them in retaliation. The thing that finally convinced him to turn to to the Dark Side was the promise of being able to protect his wife from death. Sparing his son, Luke’s life turned him back to the Light Side. Do you have supporters of your brand that are very close by your side? Do they support you, share what you produce, carry the banner for your brand? Take care of them! Make sure they are happy. They are your family and if you stay loyal to them, they will stay loyal to you.
- Get your hands dirty. Sure, old Darth had his henchmen, but he did not hesitate to roll up his sleeves and get dirty when the situation called for it. He fought Obi-Wan on the Death Star when he could have ran or hid. He hopped into a TIE fighter to try and stave off the Rebel attack on the Death Star and wound up spiraling through space as a result. He wasn’t afraid of a little heavy lifting. You shouldn’t be either. You might have a content team and they probably do a great job. Why don’t you write a piece now and then? Maybe your campaigns aren’t producing as you’d like them to. Well hop in and find out why. If you stand on the sidelines, you’ll get your Death Star blown up. Twice…
One Response to “What Darth Vader Taught Me About Social Media”