I’ve always maintained that you can find everything about marketing and social media in the Bible. Because it’s all about human behaviour – and the Bible is a remarkable documentation of human behaviour, whatever you think of its conclusions.
My ultimate framework for Social is based on Scatter, Gather, Matter – a three-step process drawn from the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4.
Scatter
Scattering is the act of spreading your message without discrimination. Some seed will be eaten up, some won’t take root, some will be choked by thorns – but some will grow. The point is that it is dangerous to carefully pick which seed you sow in which location, because you don’t know what will prosper. We’ve all had times when the ones we thought would come through didn’t, and the ones we didn’t expect did.
Gather
Seed becomes wheat that needs to be harvested. When, out of the seed you’ve scattered, some begins to participate back with you, you draw it to yourself. This is where volume becomes value. The key is to participate at the level to which you are being participated with – and to provide a place for people to gather.
Matter
What do you do with the harvest? The aim of all of this is tied up in mattering to people – because people matter. It’s not enough to ‘add value’. We must matter to people by helping them matter for others. The crux of this final stage is empowerment. Awareness without empowerment produces nothing. An empowered person helps themselves and helps others.