What The Grinch Can Teach You About Social Media

5 Social Media Lessons From Dr. Seuss [QUOTES]

How The Grinch Stole Christmal book cover“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons.

It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

“What if [Social Media], he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if [Social Media], perhaps, means a little bit more.” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas 

Just as the Grinch discovered Christmas is much deeper than gifts and tinsel, social media platforms are more than distribution channels for your marketing messages.

Participants seek more than push messages. They want to interact with their family, friends, colleagues and social media connections.

What the Grinch Can Teach You About Social Media: 5 Dr. Seuss Inspired Lessons

To help you to better engage on social media platforms and make it nice, it’s useful to take Dr. Seuss’ advice. Here are five quotes to help set you on your way.

1. Dr. Seuss Inspired Social Media Lesson: “You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?”

Be yourself on social media. Be transparent and open. Don’t hide behind an avatar.

Remember there are people at the other end of your social media communications. They have human emotions. Unlike face-to-face conversations, it’s difficult to see how they respond.

From a business perspective, skip the glossy finish. Give your prospects the information they want and need to make informed buying decisions. If you don’t, you risk that your competition may.

Remember that most shoppers are 60+% of the way through their purchase research before you know they’re in-market.

2. Dr. Seuss Inspired Social Media Lesson: “To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.”

Setting foot onto a social media network may seem daunting since potentially thousands of people can see your every communication. Like Hollywood, there social media superstars with millions of followers.

BUT like in real life, you must find your social media squad. These are the people with whom you want to engage and interact. They can include your family, friends, colleagues and others.

What’s important is that you decide how you want to incorporate social media into your life and to your job. Assess what you want to be public and what do you want to be private?

3. Dr. Seuss Inspired Social Media Lesson: “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.”

Both on social media and off, you have to live your life regardless of your age. Time is ticking.

Don’t let life just happen to you.

Decide what do you want to accomplish and create a plan to accomplish your goals.

Figure out what you need to do and do it. You have the ability to try again if you don’t get it totally right the first time. No place is this more true than social media. People aren’t perfect.

4. Dr. Seuss Inspired Social Media Lesson: “How did it get so late so soon?”

This quote is perfect for social media where we spend at least one out of every five minutes of our time online.

Whether it’s scanning through friend’s photos or comments. It’s how we connect and communicate with a broader community.

While we can spend hours hanging out, make sure you limit your time on social media. It’s like the candy canes of media.

5. Dr. Seuss Inspired Social Media Lesson: “Only you can control your future.”

You have the power over your destiny.

Nowhere is this truer than on social media.

All you need is the willingness to take your first step and be transparent.

Care for others and be willing to be open and engage with them.

The What the Grinch Can Teach You About Social Media Bottom line

Underlying Dr. Seuss’ words is the message that you must get out and believe in yourself.

This Dr. Seuss lesson resonates across social media platforms. You must be your true self in real time.

At no time is this truer than the holidays.

No one wants to be a Grinch in real life or social media.

So step out and take control.

Be youer than you on social media.

What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss quote and why?

What implications does it have for social media?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Heidi CohenHeidi Cohen is the President of Riverside Marketing Strategies.
You can find Heidi on , Facebook and .
Editor’s Note: This post was initially published on December 24th, 2012. In in the quote from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, I changed “Christmas” to “social media”. Additional paragraph breaks were added to improve readability.

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