What Shoeless Joe Can Teach Us about Social Media Strategy

It may go against social media convention, but I think Field of Dreams was right.

I’ve listened to scores of seminars, sat through just as many webinars and enjoyed many conversations around social media that encourage one to disregard the most memorable line in the movie: “If you build it, he will come.”

The line is offered from an ethereal voice as encouragement that Ray Kinsella build something out of nothing and blindly believe people will show up to appreciate it. Social media simply doesn’t work this way. This point I do not argue.

Yet I’m still not ready to disregard the film’s admonition.

“If you build it, he will come” is not the sole piece of advice offered by the mysterious voice in Field of Dreams. It’s only the opening salvo that leads Ray Kinsella on a journey of discovery that pays off in the end.

If we’re going to develop social media strategy based on movie quotes (it seems some people develop it on less), why not listen to all the advice the voice has to offer? Perhaps the nugget more applicable to social media is the last-whispered message to Ray Kinsella:

Go the distance.

I won’t argue that it’s bad practice to set up system profiles and wait for the conversation to come to you. But it wouldn’t be so bad if the same creator was willing to go the distance.

Social media marketing is work. It takes time to develop strategy, time to implement that strategy and even more time to analyze its impact. Yet — like the long journey of Ray Kinsella — it’s worth it in the end.

Go the distance.