What is social media’s role in marketing? Many marketers and business owners find social media difficult to grasp. They may know they need to start using it, but failure to understand of it’s role in the marketing process lead to wrong tactics which just annoys social media users.
For example, some marketers simply blast out spammy messages through Twitter, Facebook groups and blog comments. I don’t know about you, but that pisses the heck out of me.
In my opinion, social media helps make your brand human and turns your marketing into relationships. Let me try to explain.
When early merchants started trading goods, they did so in public venues like souqs, bazaars and markets. They would have nurtured relationships and trust among their customers to ensure a good reputation and positive word of mouth, the main marketing vehicle way back when. They did this by listening to their customers, providing quality products and services, and actually caring – in short, they had to be human.
Fast forward to the industrial revolution and merchants, now known as businesses and brands, had a more effective way of reaching their customers: mass media. Through TV advertising, brands could reach millions and that was much more efficient than selling to a handful of people at a time in the market.
However, after decades of mass media advertising, businesses started to lose touch with their consumers. Businesses replaced building relationships with customers with branding – a poor substitute if you ask me. I have a feeling that many marketers today are more comfortable talking to an advertising agency or using automated spamming tools, rather than having a deep conversation with their customer.
In this case, the business is no longer human. It becomes a wall of light and sound, and consumers can’t form relationships with walls.
Social media offers brands a chance to be human again. It’s not practical to expect every company to have a personal relationship with each customer, but social media can help make that process more efficient. At the very least, social media allows businesses to listen to what their customers are saying, supporting customers and providing access to the people within the company.
Social media helps brands be human. We’re back to the merchant in the market again. One-on-one again, but amplified with social media tools.
Some brands recognise this and have begun to talk, joke, share stories with me in my favourite hang out spots like Facebook and Twitter. Some brands even have their employees dropping by blogs.
It’s not that difficult. If Tony Fernandes can do it, now everyone can use social media (geddit??).
Here are some action steps for you. What are some of the ways your company listens to your customers? (Hint: focus groups don’t count). When’s the last time you actually had a none sales-related conversation with your customers? How can you use social media to connect and increase your relationship-building effectiveness?
Please leave a comment below or share this post with your friends. This is just my own opinion, so I’d love to hear your thoughts, and am happy to share more if you’d like.
Photo credits
Huế market by Jaako
Wall of TVs by GabeB
