When Peanut Butter Met Jelly

By John McGory

Dean Keith Simonton, in his 1989 book “Scientific Genius,” suggests that geniuses are superior because they form more novel combinations than the merely talented.

Exciting new opportunities or experiences are possible through novel combos.  When peanut butter met jelly, magic happened.  The same can be said for Monday nights and football, sizzle and steak, Oreos and milk, spandex and clothing and recliners, remote controls and flat screen TVs.  Once the atom of creativity is split between entities, the fusion of genius is created.

The rush to social media for business applications is impressive.  Companies of all shapes and sizes are creating Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts and blogs.  But in many cases, rather than creating magic, these efforts are provoking ire from the boss who wonders why they are paying someone to tweet, “Have a nice day.”

Like Einstein and energy, mass and the speed of light, astonishing business results come from the combining of ideas.  It takes a truly creative mind to fuse unlikely combinations that turn a zipper into Velcro.  But it doesn’t take Lennon and McCartney to put together simple social media and business ideas to make sweet music.

Think strategically about how your company uses its newsletters, blogs, social media and web sites in tandem.  These vehicles need to act in unison to create community and eventually drive traffic to your web site.

After scratching our collective heads over our own web site, social media channels, blogs and newsletter, we at Web Face decided to coordinate two or three messages at a time.  Here are some non-techie ideas on how to put it together.

1.  Create a blog.  Keep it short, in the 150-to-500-word range.  Make it topical, interesting and fun. Entice the reader to want to know more about your company without pushing a hard sell.  If you have different topics, create several blogs and include a link to your web site.  Write catchy headlines.  Hire talent if you don’t have the staff to create attention.

2.  Create an email newsletter.  In the newsletter put two or three teasers about your last few blogs.  Link the blog so people can find it.

3.  Tweet your blogs and post them on your web site or Facebook page.  Track your blogs to see where your traffic is coming from – your tweets, your Facebook page or your newsletter?    

4.  Track which topics drive traffic.  Improve the system as you progress.

The key is to take a couple catchy blog ideas at a time and promote them using the social media tools available.  This combo of your ideas and social media tools will bring more customers to you.  It isn’t peanut butter and jelly, but this simple lesson on combining ideas can bring a new appreciation of the power of the Internet.

John McGory is a partner at Web Face.  Web Face (www.web-face-solutions.com) can help you combine the ideas that will make your company’s social media efforts soar.