We have been doing lots of presentations and workshops on social media for clients, brands, agencies, and people just interested in learning about the medium. One of the messages we carry is that we want them to avoid falling into the “shiny trinket” trap of social media.

What we mean by the “shiny trinket” trap is being convinced that social media is just a Facebook application, just a MySpace page, or just posting videos on YouTube with no strategy. The result, more often than not, ends in disappointment.

We met with a dozen brands yesterday to discuss social media and how to plan a program and create a strategy. While some of the content is theoretical, we always like to share real case studies and examples of what social media is and how it works. I shared the following example of how social media really works:

We were bracing for a snowstorm this past weekend in the Philadelphia area. I decided to get a new Wii game to have some amusement in case of getting snowed in. I went to Twitter and posted the following Tweet:

I got a number of responses from friends and followers and one them was from @kellieparker, a Sega employee.

I hadn’t heard of this game, so I Googled it and one of the first results was to a video trailer that someone had posted on YouTube. So, I took a look at it. You can view it below.

The video looked pretty interesting, but I still wasn’t convinced. I wanted to see what people who had actually purchased and played the game actually thought. So, I went over to Amazon and searched for “House of the Dead Overkill Wii” to read some reviews.

The game had 15 five-star ratings with the lowest rating out of 23 being three stars. The reviews included quotes such as the following from Rob Phelps:

“Now to the ZOMBIES!!! they never looked more amazing, all the gory bloodiness is here to relish in, its truelly incredible how far the graphics are pushed on the Nintendo Wii! it looks as good as the other systems and brings out what the Wii is all about, unique games with a new twist! Wii keeps bringing us fun Lightgun games that we didnt have before in other systems except for a few not so good exceptions on Ps2 and xbox…”

So having gotten a suggestion from the brand, checking out a video posted on YouTube, and reading positive reviews from people who purchased the game at Amazon, I felt this was a game I would like and posted the following Tweet:

So there you go, a practical and real example of social media informing, affecting, and influencing a purchase decision. And, I am not regretting the purchase of the game, it is a lot of fun and I give it five-stars myself.