Social Media Marketing Storyboard #1: Fish Where The Fish Are

I sometimes find that imagery helps to convey messages better than words.

If you like it, you can pass it around, embed it, or download it from the Slideshare site and use in your own decks.

Love to hear your feedback on both the message as well as my delivery –I’m trying a few new things around here.

74 Replies to “Social Media Marketing Storyboard #1: Fish Where The Fish Are”

  1. The simple presentation style and use of imagery is very nice. With that said when I got to the end of the presentation I was longing for a bit more. While we all learn from experience more detail that teaches me how to fish instead of an invite to go fishing would make this more powerful.

  2. I love the simplicity of the message. Why is it that people always “over-complicate” the truth? Probably because we can’t accept it. I see a lot of fly-tiers out there and not many philosophers. Maybe we’ll learn to live with the fish and not try to eat all of them.

  3. Jeremiah,

    I think this does a great job with the message. As I understand being a good fisherman takes knowledge of the land, the right lure, and patience.

    Gregarious

  4. Hi Jeremiah,

    Great to meet you last night. Enjoyed my first tweetup! If we are going to use the analogy of fish and consumers my question would be do fish really want to be caught eventually? 😉

    ~ jessica

  5. Being a very visual person, the simplicity of the messaging and imagery works very well. The concept can also be applied to many different aspects of the business. In person, you can explain a little deeper which is even more useful and drives the ideas home around Social Media, maybe you can add voice over onto these slides for others?

  6. Chris Brogan has an ebook by the same title!

    http://www.chrisbrogan.com/fishebook/

    I would say the core idea is similar. Jeremiah’s take presents it in its purest simplest form while Chris’s ebook elaborates a little more on various aspects of social media.

    Look forward to more sharing from Jeremiah!

  7. Fish aren’t really looking to be caught though? I see a lot of trawling rather than fishing going on social-wise…!

  8. Honestly, seems like many slides when you could have used two. #1 – do you think about rods and hooks #2 – do you think about fish in schools.

  9. I like the message – “come fish with me” – and the use of images. Visuals help me remember a message much more clearly than slides filled up up with bullet points. Keep it up!

    @BryanPerson

  10. May I add the importance of selecting the right bait? Knowing where consumers are and their behavioural tendencies is crucial, but if you dont select the right bait (implementation / creative idea)then you are likely to be ignored here as well. For example, what good is identifying that your consumers use Twitter if you dont then present any valid reason for them to follow you once you are there (beyond mere presence)?

    Whilst I do see the fishing connection, I feel it is perhaps miss-leading as it suggests that companies are in a position of power and using social technologies to catch consumers. Perhaps not the most accurate representation of the opportunities social presents.

    Still, it is good to see a deck that means to simplify this, rather than adding further layers of complexity (which are un-neccassary).

  11. Rather than fishing, which implies enticing a single fish to hook itself, isn’t the social media marketing metaphor more about finding and targeting specific schools of fish and feeding them what they want/need?

  12. Hi Jeremiah,

    Very simple, quick, looks obvious: great!

    I would add: observe the way fishes behave, in addition to where they are, and this will increase chances to fish a big one! What do you think? (there’s a bit of it when you say: understand them ;-))

  13. I like the creative way you conveyed this message.

    Ya know, I always thought that if one wants to be a good fisherman, the best way to do so is to act like a fish in the first place.

  14. So simple, yet so targeted.

    This message would be perfect to send a web developer I have been working with, except that I became so frustrated with his lack of understanding this very point, that I pulled myself out of the project.

  15. I think that in the purist sense of social media you would swim with the fishes (participation and understanding). Only then would you truly be an accepted member of the community. Nice analogy and I like the visual aspect of the presentation.

  16. I was briefing with the Kickapps team today (they make community platform software) and suggested that many brands still will want to harvest their own fish closer to their corporate website.

    Yes, that model is still successful, and I’d want to reinforce that regardless of ‘join or build’ that brands must first understand their customers.

  17. It™s a nice delivered clean and essential message. The focus is absolutely right. If the viewer does not take in the basic premise of the project then the rest of the discussion is irrelevant and most likely just more destructive. Well done 🙂

  18. Imagery is power.

    But for the “going beyond”, the metaphor for “slide-sharing” is that old device showing one picture at a time from your primary shool, remember? Thus, stuck in powerpoint-land. Get rid of the box, and use e. g. Prezi.com ! Zoom, remix, follow interaction flow with audience, map, connect, static and dynamic at the same time.

    Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Prezi, just a happy “discoverer” (and beta-user playing around right now) of their approach!

    Peace,
    Anders

  19. @jeremiah_owyang: Thought so too! Talking about fish – there are new web apps and startups to find at the other side of the pond as well, you know. Prezi is a Hungarian startup :).

    Peace,
    Anders

    PS. I think your slides is one interpretation of what HUBspot coins “inbound marketing”. Personalized conversations with 1×1 authentic sessions = best loyalty. If you and your brand get there, the other fish will flock as well, won’t they? And, the era of big fishnets called mass media outbound marketing is almost over, in parallel with the “oil age”. Welcome, Silicon Age! Distributed energy, people, conversation, linkage. Sun power, Integrated Circuits – and us. Challenge: Take that convo con’t, to a Prezi set, J. ;). Tweetify me when you’re ready :). DS.

  20. Very simple, effective slide show. It can be so easy to get caught up in doing all of the coolest things just because you can when you are really forgetting to put a plan in place as to why you are even doing them. I think it is because it takes time to understand your consumer. Time that a lot of companies are not investing. Instead they just cast a line and hope for a bite. Well done.

  21. The pictures are great, the metaphor also works. Just to build, I think the ability to work in a story would make the message even more clear. Stories connect your audience with your message and make these “theories” seem more real and tangible.

  22. Thank You! I’m writing a promotion plan (first one, ever) for a my marketing management class and feeling a bit clueless. Your presentation really helped smooth out my objectives. The fishing metaphor was truly brilliant.

  23. I’m the only one in this world. Can please someone join me in this life? Or maybe death…

  24. As I have been painfully trying to convey my thoughts to a potential client, I remembered reading this post and how it so succinctly brings it into focus. They are so intent on building a robust platform, they have completely lost focus of who they are doing it for. I plan to use it in a presentation tomorrow as well!! Thanks for your amazing insight and direction.

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