Now here’s a little story I wrote—an allegory about what a social media marketing strategy could be (or should be). Warning: this story contains no technical jargon or buzzwords. Of course, all characters depicted in this story are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, etc., etc. (you know the drill). Let’s begin!

Imagine a small North American town in the fifties. And in this small town, there’s a salesman, George V. (I see him as a Willy Loman type, the main character in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman). George sells tweezers. He has been selling his wares door-to-door for twenty years. But George is no ordinary salesman. Every—or almost every—housewife in town has bought one of his products. Many of them even have a second or third pair for the car or the office, that’s how good he is!

For a while now, George has been dreaming up new uses for his products. Tweezers don’t really wear out and his clients—as happy as they may be—probably won’t need a new pair for another several years. This gets George to thinking. He alriedy tried selling his tweezers to men, but with limited success. One day, upon returning home, he spies his thirteen-year-old son Mark at the kitchen table with his stamp collection. In order to handle the stamps with the required care, Mark has borrowed a pair of his father’s “special sensitive-skin” tweezers. For Georgee, it’s a revelation: he will try selling his wares to all the stamp collectors in town!

But how and where will he find them? George asks Mark, who promptly replies, eyes gleaming:

• “All the stamp collectors in town gather at the community centre on the first Wednesday of every month. It’s really quite something—did you know that stamp collecting has been one of the town’s most popular hobbies for some time now? The members of the club even gave themselves a name: The Stampers. How cool is that? I was actually going to ask you to take me there one of these days . . .”

• “So the next Stampers Club meeting is in two weeks?” asks George, trying to contain his excitement at the prospect of confirming his hunch. “I’ll go with you.”

Mark almost leaps into his father’s arms with joy. Fortunately, he remembers just in time that it’s not cool for thirteen-year-olds to show affection for their fathers. He gets a hold of himself and somewhat awkwardly extends his hand to his father. George smiles, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and formally shakes his son’s hand.

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How accurate is George’s hunch about the stamp collectors? Will the years ahead be prosperous? Find out in the next episode of our series . . .