Have you heard of the monkey experiment before?
I’m sure, at one point in your life, you were or still are able to relate to the story.
The experiment involved 5 monkeys, a cage, a banana, a ladder and a water hose.
The 5 monkeys would be locked in a cage, after which a banana was hung from the ceiling with and a ladder placed right underneath it.
Immediately, one of the monkeys would race towards the ladder, intending to climb it and grab the banana. However, as soon as he would start to climb, the researcher would spray the monkey with ice-cold water and then they would also spray the other four monkeys.
When a second monkey was about to climb the ladder, the researcher would, again, spray the monkey with ice-cold water, and apply the same treatment to its four fellow inmates; likewise for the third climber and, if they were particularly persistent (or dumb), the fourth one. Then they would have learned their lesson: they were not going to climb the ladder again – banana or no banana.
The researcher outside the cage would then replace one of the monkeys with a new one. Soon the new monkey would spot the banana and start climbing the ladder. The other four monkeys, familiar with the cold-water treatment, would run towards the new guy – and beat him up. The new guy, blissfully unaware of the cold-water history, would get the message: no climbing up the ladder in this cage – banana or no banana.
When the researcher outside the cage would replace a second monkey with a new one, the events would repeat themselves – monkey runs towards the ladder; other monkeys beat him up; new monkey does not attempt to climb again – with one notable detail: the first new monkey, who had never received the cold-water treatment himself (and didn’t even know anything about it), would with equal vigour and enthusiasm, join in the beating of the new monkey.
When the researcher replaced a third monkey, the same thing happened; likewise for the fourth until, eventually, all the monkeys had been replaced and none of the ones in the cage had any experience or knowledge of the cold-water treatment.
Then, a new monkey was introduced into the cage. It ran toward the ladder only to get beaten up by the others. Yet, this monkey turned around and asked “why do you beat me up when I try to get the banana?” The other four monkeys stopped, looked at each other slightly puzzled and, finally, shrugged their shoulders: “Don’t know. But that’s the way we do things around here”.
I want you to understand the monkey experiment and how you can become unproductive and out dated when you continue to use old techniques that may no longer work for your business only because you’ve been taught, “that’s the way we have always done things”. Social media is still relatively new to businesses. I often hear “it’s not how we do business”, “I’m not from that generation”, “sales are slow so we need to stop social media”.
I don’t want your business overlooked because your competitor is using social media and they are getting noticed by your customers.
Social media is a new way of marketing. It’s more rewarding than putting an ad in the magazine or placing an ad in the yellow pages.
Social media works. I see successes everyday!
Unsure how social media can work for you? Contact me and let’s chat about your business needs.
