Seth Godin really struck a cord for me this morning with today’s post. I have clients who are asking me how how they can “do what Obama did” but don’t understand the differences between social marketing and traditional marketing.

When I explain that using social media to market an idea or drive a movement can work very well, but to use the medium correctly they will need to change their way of thinking and make a commitment to social media.

This is what Seth was touching on in today’s post that too many businesses are creating a meatball sundae by trying to use social media like it’s another TV commercial or magazine ad. It’s not, with social media we want to be educated and entertained and if we like what you share with us THEN we will buy from you. This is a very tough thing for most organizations to get their hands around. I know I struggled with it for a while myself.

Most of my clients are offline businesses or inventors introducing new products and we are using social media in a limited way for their campaigns, but I have one client who I believe is extremely well suited for excelling at social media.  They are an 18,000 member nonprofit and if they leverage their current member base and freely share information about their members causes they will attract new members, grow the relationship with their current members and increase donations. I’ll keep everyone posted on their progress.