So, if the “keys” to success in the Social Media landscape are:

Do Something Worth Talking About (Be Remarkable)
Make It Easy To Spread (add social media elements)

the question then becomes:

For whom should you “do something worth talking about?”

We all know that what I want to talk about is not necessarily what YOU want to talk about.

Well, the answer I usually give is “your raving fans.” The people who are already excited about your product/service.

“Great,” you say, “but what if I have a new product or service? I don’t have any ‘raving fans yet.’”

Fair enough.

Then, I will point you in the direction of Robert Scoble’s post on Passionates vs. Non-Passionates. (and here’s my comment on the post)

His argument, and one we’ve had a fair amount on this blog is: it’s probably not worth it to convince someone who isn’t naturally passionate about your product or service to use it. It’s like Kevin Kelly’s idea of the 1000 True Fans to grow your business.

It’s too time-consuming and expensive and you can still build a really good business without getting EVERYONE.

This actually raises a different question of an economic paradigm sort.

In a ‘mass media’ economy, you spent a lot of money on TV and you had to make a huge number of sales (volume) to a large number of people.

Now, in a “Long tail” economy, there are those who say it is a “winner take all,” but in reality, it may be plenty of opportunity to create profitable (just not blockbuster businesses) a little further downstream.

Thoughts on this one?