If you think social media networking and it’s corollary Social Marketing aren’t working, listen to my story about buying Rocker Style shoes. Like many today I try to walk 3 to 4 times a week (running wreaks havoc on my shins). At the same time I’ve been looking for the nirvana of shoes. Shoes that emulate more our natural walking style yet stimulate all parts of the foot, calf muscles, and buttocks while going easy on and lowering back pain.
For years the industry leader promoted a shoe that emulated how the Masai people walked across the flat plains of eastern Africa. Wow, I thought, got to get me pair of these shoes. Being the social media gadfly that I am, I decided to do some research first. Here’s what I learned – not from the sites that carried these types of shoes – but from the people that purchased and wore them. People that had social media networks as their message carrier.
Some of us have excellent stability in our lower ankles and feet, and others (like many of us older folks), less stable feet, with wobbly ankles and calf muscles. So through various industry sites I learned that if you ever walked at all over uneven terrain, the industry leader’s more spongy shoe might create problems for those of us with weak ankles. I also learned that the industry leader had gone through bankruptcy and that many shoe outlets had limited stocks or support for the shoe.
Also, as is the case in many product designs competitors build better mousetraps, with better manufacturing capability, suppliers better skilled and greater attention to customer support. As it turns out there were several other rocker style shoe manufacturers that took our natural walking style and accommodated us weak ankle folks by providing a more stable shoe.
Even though there are many great web consumer sites, forums and online industry watchdog sites, I’ve now found that many of these sites are loaded with pop up ads, vendor endorsements and very little actual customer experiences. I did find that just a quick search in the Twitterverse yielded much more meaningful information in my pursuit of the near perfect walking shoe. Not only did I find actual customer experiences with rocker shoes but also where I could get them and find them supported. So thank You Twitter now my back no longer hurts, I’m feeling good from the excercise – finally nirvana.
… Reed Oftain