I was thinking today how hit and miss social media can be if you base your approach on reaching people at a specific moment of time.
It simply doesn't work to say, let's Tweet this on Thursday to coincide with our widget launch.
What if President Obama stubs his toe on Thursday ... no one will care about your widget launch. Less dramatically, what if your most influential brand fans happen to miss your Tweet [which in the fast-paced world of Twitter streams and Facebook updates is likely to happen]?
If your approach doesn't account for these scenarios, you'll almost certainly miss chances to engage the people most likely to champion your message.
It comes back to the mantra we're all familiar with by this point ... social media is a conversation not a campaign.
Marketers interested in capturing a moment in time should buy the Super Bowl or Oscars. And to be clear, I do think in some cases this is a smart approach. But barring that kind of budget, you better think about a calendar of conversations over a period of time.
Though I suppose a few marketers in Cupertino would tell you that all it takes is a few years of speculation and a bunch of Apple loyalists to make a single press conference a massive social media happening.
I just wouldn't count on it for your widget launch.