Imagine you’re standing in front of the Taj Mahal marveling at its construction.  A local Guide comes up to you and states “Such a wonderful creation, we have but one to thank”.  “Who’s is this special person?” you reply.  “Oh, it’s not a person, it’s the new wheelbarrow,” suggests the guide.

Startled by this revelation, you ask for more details.  “Well,” says the guide, “If it wasn’t for the wheelbarrow there would have been no way to get all of our content needed for the construction of this masterpiece from the delivery area to the building site, therefore we must all hail the wheelbarrow”.

Not wishing to appear rude but concerned with the Guides logic you contest the claim by asking, “Don’t you think the planners, architects, project managers, builders and artisans should be given even a little credit?”  The Guide ponders for a moment then says, “Yes, but they are old news now, we have had them for years.  This new wheelbarrow is where it’s at now”.

Social Media is the new wheelbarrow.  Many marketers give the credit for creating new sales or a new movement to the social network when actually it was words, pictures and ideas that created the movement, the social media platform simply facilitated getting the ‘content to site’.

While Social Media platforms are a super important part of the process, we still communicated and had connections before its arrival.  I believe that social media gets credit where credit isn’t due, distorting its importance in the marketing process, misdirecting many marketers.

Successful individuals or organisations that make rich movements and happy customers via social media always focus on the complex task of creating compelling content that stimulates debate, sharing and has context with their audience.

You should ask yourself how much time and effort goes into creating that winning engaging content driven strategy and how much of your time goes into playing with wheelbarrows?