Social Media Marketing Wisdom from a Galaxy Far, Far Away

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In honor of Star Wars Day (which, truly, is every day here in the Allton Household), I thought I’d share some of the pieces of wit and wisdom I’ve gleaned from the extensive series of films and cartoons over the years.

Whether you’re a fan of Star Wars or not, you’ll find these quotes to be perfectly applicable to your social media marketing.

Focus

“Your focus determines your reality.” – Qui-Gon Jinn

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The sage advice from the Jedi master to his padawan was meant to encourage a young Obi-Wan to focus on his surroundings and the issue at hand, and less about his emotional state.

Whether referring to our business or our Facebook posts, the advice couldn’t be more applicable.

What are your social media goals, and what specific activities are you engaged in that will achieve those goals?

Are you focused on spending the majority of your time on the tasks that will take your business as far as possible in the future?

Too often, we get caught up in the kind of minutia that accomplish very little in the long run.

It’s also easy to go after low-hanging fruit when it comes to social activity, instead of taking the time to build real relationships the only way possible: one at a time.

This isn’t the first time that the topic of Focus was raised.

Yoda once said to Luke, “A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind…. All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.”

While the Jedi were a semi-religious order that preached a stoic approach to living, the idea that businesses and marketers might need to spend a little less time dreaming about the future might be a valid point.

Luck

“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

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When a scruffy-looking nerf herder tells you that everything you believe in, everything that’s enabled you to achieve what you have, is all just luck, what other way is there to respond?

Just as your focus is the key to ensuring the longterm, successful direction of your business, the most accomplished marketers and business owners eschew luck in favor of activities that generate real results.

They make decisions that they know will create better opportunities.

They use data to support (or refute) those decisions whenever possible.

They surround themselves with people who can help them to avoid failure.

If you find yourself trying all kinds of different strategies and tactics, in the blind hope that one will stick and get you closer to your goals, that’s relying on luck. Take a step back and re-evaluate what you’re doing. See what processes and metrics you can put in place to manufacture the kind of luck and opportunities you think you need.

Goals

“Look, I ain’t in this for your revolution, and I’m in it for you, princess. I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money.” – Han Solo
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Here’s the thing. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do well financially. In fact, as marketers, typically our most important KPI is sales revenue for our business or clients.

The problem with money being an over-arching goal though is one of compatibility.

While we may care about making money for ourselves, our clients don’t share the same concern. In fact, if the money is only flowing one way, they care quite a bit less and differently than we do.

What’s worse, it’s possible to be blinded by such drive to issues which might impact our customers, but not the bottom line.

In other words, we’d be caring about the wrong things.

Instead, the best course of action is to make sure that our goals align with our customer’s goals. What issues are they having that you can solve? What questions do they have that you can answer?

How can you be the best possible ___________ to the people you serve?

Focus on that and the money will follow.

Effort

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

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This is a tough edict from Yoda – directed at Luke when he was still learning what it meant to even be a Jedi, let alone act like one. Struggling to grasp the possibilities of his newfound abilities, Luke said he’d try one more time to complete the task assigned him, but that wasn’t good enough for the master.

You see, this isn’t about not trying new things, or not trying new approaches. What Yoda was referring to was having faith in yourself to do the things that are core to your being.

Want to test a new tool, or try a new tactic on Facebook? Go ahead! Give those things a try and see what happens – I run mini tests (and more elaborate experiments) like that all the time.

But do not try to reach your audience. Do not try to engage with them and build a community. Those are core to your business, core to your approach to marketing that you need to simply do.

Your first attempts might not work, but the difference between try and do isn’t about success and failure, but rather intent. You can try a tool and decide it doesn’t work, or doesn’t work for you. But you can’t decide to try a longterm business strategy and give up the moment it doesn’t immediately go viral.

You keep at it and keep at it until it works and you can do it consistently.

Unfocused Thoughts

I think those four areas are where marketers can devote more time contemplating and integrating, but they’re far from the only pieces of advice one can take from Star Wars. Here are some more compelling quotes that you can apply to yourself, or perhaps others on your team:

“It’s not my fault.” – Han Solo

“Somebody has to save our skins.” – Leia Organa

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” – Darth Vader

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” – pretty much everyone

“It’s a trap!” – Admiral Ackbar

“Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

“Yeah, I’m responsible now, the price you pay for being successful.” – Lando Calrissian

“Never tell me the odds.” – Han Solo

“Impossible to see, the future is.” – Yoda

“Mind tricks don’t work on me.” – Watto

“All mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we would like. It’s the only way we grow.” – Padme

“Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.” – Han Solo