The most important thing social media can give a company is also something rarely considered a priority…

Perspective. 

Compared to tangible rewards like increased sales leads or an expanded brand presence, “perspective” often gets relegated to a company’s “nice to have, but not critical” list.

And that’s a mistake.

Because, chances are, perspective is a thing your company needs most.

Come on in. The water’s lovely.

Most marketing analogies revolve around the perspective of companies “fishing” for customers or audiences.

And, in every one of those analogies, the company is the one doing the fishing, while the audience is the one darting about in the water.

But, in reality, your company is the fish.

When it comes to an online environment, instead of sitting up high in your boat casting a lure, you’re just another in a long line of fish bowls which people are quickly walking past, like shelves of Beta fish at the pet store.

Your marketing is conceptualized and created within that fishbowl. It is from that vantage point where you analyze your target audiences, decide what messages would best speak to them and strategize ways to get a return on your investment.

But no matter how efficiently your fishbowl operates, it’s still a contained ecosystem where you swim in your possibility but also your waste and view the world through a distorted, watery lens.

Social media helps you evolve.

Social media can act as a surveillance system to enable your company to monitor the world outside your fishbowl — taking you to the places you are not invited and letting you listen to the conversations happening without you.

It expands your ecosystem and gives you a sense of how your company looks from the outside, in — instead of just from the inside, out.

This perspective is invaluable.

The speed at which technology and communications is changing is increasing every day.

The companies that stay confined to their fishbowls and invested in their distorted view of the outside world may soon find themselves in danger of extinction — becoming listless, clueless fisherman, without perspective.

Don’t be one of those companies.

Instead, strive to become a smarter fish — one who listens, learns and evolves. And maybe someday you can leave your fishbowl behind.