FOCUS: Social media should be part of your successful marketing 16 days ago | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend | print J.J. Ulrich For decades Sci-Fi thrillers have taunted audiences with the possibility that one day the human race would be snuffed out by technology. Robots would replace the species and human interaction would become extinct. For those of us that remember a time before the iCal, it seemed that as technology took over, the terror Hollywood predicted might have a kernel of truth. The personal touch that industrial legends like the Carnegies and Rockefellers built fortunes upon were disappearing one system, one app at a time. Could it be possible then that one form of digital interaction is only enhanced by the user (human, preferably). Would a generation of consumers tire of being herded like cash carrying cattle and finally say “enough” to the hard, impersonal sell? It isn’t just possible. It’s the present. Welcome to the new social media. With over 500 million Facebook users alone it’s obvious that people are becoming more social. Clay Shirky, a writer specializing in the social and economic effect of Internet technologies, perhaps put it best when he said, “The desire to be part of a group that shares, cooperates or acts in concert is a basic human instinct.” In turn, social media has successfully recovered what traditional business lost during the dot-com era, the personal touch. According to Daniel Gulati, co-author of Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, in a blog shared with the Huffington Post, your social media friends are indeed your business. Gulati points out that our online friends pay for our products, provide necessary feedback and then refer us to more of their friends. Any business leader who’s worth his or her salt understands that word of mouth referrals collectively are the equivalent of an Academy Award nomination. With social media paving the way for the new referral, personal recommendations are growing at an exponential rate. What does this mean for the customer relationship management (CRM) systems and the type of services they deliver? It’s becoming a lot more personal. From connection to content, the way we handle clients through automated programs is changing. Vivienne Russell, CBDO of Smash Solutions said, “Tools are only as good as the trends they encompass. People don’t want to be shuffled through systems the way they were 15, 10, even five years ago. They want to know there’s customer care behind the customer service. Social media may be the ace in everyone’s pocket, but if you pair that element with cold, impersonal tools, you’re right back at square one. Right now we have the opportunity to optimize the best of both worlds — automated systems with personalized features that usher our grandparents’ success into our technology driven world. CRMs and other management tools aren’t the only programs having to adapt to this new intimate approach to online marketing. Its the bread and butter, meat and potatoes that is also having to change its flavor. Otherwise known as content. Forbes states, “While consumers continue to tune out traditional intrusive marketing communications, they increasingly crave the type of genuine customer-focused information that content marketing delivers.” According to Forbes “an estimated 60 percent of businesses are importing some form of inbound into their marketing.” Why? Social networking has transformed the hard sell into an online coffee date. Personal isn’t about being pushy. It’s about authentic, interest driven interactions. George Healy, social media director for Maria’s Italian Kitchen in Los Angeles, said, “Social media gives you the opportunity to connect on a personal level with your consumer and quite frankly a savvy patron won’t allow it to be any other way. Instead of creating endless blogs and posts about our pasta or featured specials, we found a way to get to know our clientele’s personal interests. They love trivia. We provide online and in-store trivia that works in tandem to keep our customers logging in and then walking through our doors. Do I mention specials occasionally on Facebook? Of course I do, but only when I have a tempting photo, a memorable caption and it’s close to lunchtime.” The need for sophisticated content creators and social media strategists who understand the need for interest-based, engaging and original content is steadily on the rise. Consumers don’t have to pay attention to the shameless hard sell anymore. For every business that publishes repetitive product pictures and self-absorbed blogs, there are 10 more that have invested in creative, original content. Your business is among friends now and friends wouldn’t bring unsolicited products to a dinner party or lunch date, now would they? Bombarding Internet customers with hard sell materials is no different from the store owner who clobbers clients with merchandise when they walk through the door. The shop owner that engages his client as if nothing in the store was for sale, ends up with the patron comfortable enough to spend. In reality, the tone, creation and originality are so critical to online, nonchalant marketing efforts that Forbes predicts in 2014 the “top new marketing title recruited will be director of content.” Lynn Carrillo, director of social media at our company, said, “Social media has brought people back together. It brings back the chitchat that people would rather engage with. How does that transcend to business? Through content. Blogs, newsletters, email blasts and creative social media content that’s both informative and entertaining. Combine informative content with the chitchat and you have a relationship based 2014 marketing strategy.” It’s safe to call this new approach the personal-digital touch. Carrillo added, “People can smell inauthenticity from miles away. One of the perks about this new personal-digital approach is that you learn more about your branding in the long run. You discover not just numbers on a spreadsheet, but the type of clients you attract and chances are what interests you about your product will also interest them. In the long run you save money, because your marketing really gets that more precise. Gone are the days of wasting time marketing to those that aren’t engaged in what you have to offer.” This trend is especially encouraging news for the many writers and journalists who are out of luck finding work with a newspaper or collapsing print publication. They may find themselves more likely to find careers creating online content. According to Sarah Mitchell a content marketing consultant at Global Copywriting, “Businesses and brands are waking up to the importance of creating their own content. Google is putting immense pressure on producing original, high-quality content. Who better to be on your payroll than someone who can tell a good story and crank out consistently good material.” Whoever says business and pleasure don’t mix is wrong, at least in 2014. Perhaps we’ve been keeping these two apart for far too long. With so much evidence encouraging strong customer-company relationships, we discover friends among consumers and consumers among friends. Garth Stein wrote, “In racing they say your car goes where your eyes go.” In modern social media marketing, we’ve arrived at the realization that a consumer’s eyes go where their friend’s eyes go, and your whole social circle is driving. Welcome to the race. J.J. Ulrich is the founder and CEO of Smash Solutions in Salt Lake City. Read more: The Enterprise - FOCUS Social media should be part of your successful marketing
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:38:03 +0000
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