Maybe you have heard the news that Metta World Peace, the professional basketball player that used to be known as Ron Artest, is considering another name change. These days Mr. Peace is playing roundball in China for the Sichuan Blue Whales and is in the process of legally becoming The Panda’s Friend. This is no joke. MWP has been wearing sneakers with plush panda heads on them. You would know that if you followed Mr. Peace, er Mr. P. Friend on social media, particularly on Twitter where @MettaWorldPeace has 755,000 followers! This all seems to fit perfectly into the self promotion era of social media. Professional athletes are not just athletes, they are a sideshow. And social media gives us access to their lives. The more bizarre, the more social media followers. The more followers, the more potential to sell the stuff they are pushing, like stuffed bear heads on a shoe. (By all accounts, the people living in the Sichuan province of China have taken to the shoes and to MWP/TPF.)

There is an entertainment value in social media. Every day there are trending videos, photos and stories that are viewed by millions of people. Whenever you have that many people looking at the same thing, there is a marketing opportunity. But what can you do with social media from a marketing standpoint? It seems to be unlike any other media that came before it. For instance, when a TV ad is placed, there are planned out breaks in the show to place the ads. The same is true of radio. In other entertainment venues, there are all kinds of opportunities for sponsorships and signage. Arenas are named for corporate brands. When there is a break in the action at a sporting venue, the jumbotron lights up with an ad. When I go to the theater, the snack bar is always promoted before the movie starts. The local orchestra, the zoo, museums, the county fair… you name your entertainment venue and there is a tried and true marketing method attached to it. Social media entertainment is different. It is built upon the free flow of information and it is incredibly spontaneous and unpredictable. Free, spontaneous and unpredictable are not exactly what most businesses are all about. We like to be highly profitable, planned and very predictable.

There are some very simple ideas that you can use to market your business with social media. You can even use the entertainment value of the medium to your benefit. First, we should recognize that venues such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn allow you to place ads or sponsor a post that promotes your business. You may have opened a video only to have to wait a few seconds for an ad before your video starts. These can be purchased. However, there are some simple actions you can take to use the medium to market your business.

Learn to promote your content marketing

Content marketing is very much at the center of the social media scene. Blogs, case studies, short articles (such as you are reading now) are very popular. However, I find that many people do not know some very simple ways of getting this info out to the masses. The power of social media is that the people I am connected to are connected to many more people, who are also connected to even more. In fact, it has been said that for every connection you make on social media, there are 10,000 second and third degree connections behind them. When you post an article or a case study, you should share it on various social mediums. This action unleashes the power of the medium.

Cause marketing

One of the most viewed topics on social media has to do with social causes. Are you involved as a company with a philanthropic cause? If not, find one. Don’t just throw money at it, but find a cause that your employees can get behind. Document what they are doing on social media. Don’t be afraid to show your human side, this resonates with social media users. Invite your customers to get involved as well. Pull in your vendors. Don’t underestimate the power of cause marketing, especially on social media. Causes trend quickly on social media. Cause marketing is different because it is not necessarily promoting your product or services, but it is promoting your company goodwill to a very large and influential group. Any time I can push the goodwill of the company to that many people, it is good for the brand. And people buy the brand they know (see my article, Split Second Marketing.)

Speaking of cause marketing, I might point out that Ron Artest/Metta World Peace/The Panda’s Friend is not only promoting his new panda sneakers, but has connected with PETA to promote spaying and neutering pets in China! It was big trending news just a few days ago. Bizarre? Yes, but it gets looked at by a lot of people. Play on Panda’s Friend, and I hope you don’t trip over those stuffed bear heads on your sneakers while driving the lane.

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Metta World Peace debuts Panda Friend basketball shoes, by Soraya Nadia McDonald, The Washington Post, September 24, 2014