Chris Brogan’s question was so interesting that of course I headed on over to add my two-pence worth. I thought I’d blog it here as well and add a few additional thoughts.
When it comes to Social Media, marketers (and by default the agencies who work on their behalf), need to understand how to start with the person, not their product. In many cases this is going to need a completely new way of thinking that won’t come easy.
They are also going to have to come down from their ivory towers and listen more. That’s not an easy thing for a company to do but it’s not impossible. And since consumers are already out there talking about them, the question is “where are they in the conversation?” In most case, they are absent.
Marketers and agencies will need to learn to be a little less sensitive about their brands so that they can have the courage to use social Media tools and strategies and their audience to strengthen it.
They are going to have to learn that it’s not about “marketing at” but “working with” and “listening to” their customers… and they will have to grasp how to do this quickly.
They are going to have to get better about simple basics like customer service, and that people like to talk to people rather than robots… new campaigns mean squat and only serve to irritate if I’m a customer who descends into a veritable voice-mail hell when all I want is said company to solve a problem with their product or something they’ve promised me in their latest ad.
Marketers and agencies also need to stop looking at social media through the traditional media framework. They are different. Social Media Marketing demands more intimacy and interaction, while traditional marketing lacks intimacy and doesn’t allow for interaction.
The whole organization should be enabled for Social Media… not just marketing. If it’s top down it will be supported, resourced and consistent. Which means their biggest challenge may be to sell it to the CEO – with a solid business case.
While I don’t think the fundamentals of marketing have changed (marketers must still have a strategy, goals, success measures resources, conversion, etc for Social Media) the buying behaviour of the consumers they are trying to reach definitely has changed.
But while I understand what marketers need to learn and the implications if they don’t, I also appreciate that it’s not easy from them. They have hundreds of questions, from “what is a blog?” to “should I be on Facebook?”Agencies are going to need to know their stuff very well and be able to talk strategy, outcomes and value-add before tools if they want to help change the powerful marketing and company status quo.
Share your thoughts. And check out the original post and comment’s on Chris Brogan’s blog… because it’s a very topical question – not least because consumers are paying attention to those companies that make an effort to engage them.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You and I see eye to eye on all of it. I guess I’ll have to give you your two pence back.
The part that I love from your post is this: “The whole organization should be enabled for Social Media… not just marketing.” The way I like to talk about it is to ask whether the marketing department is who owns email. I ask if the marketing department owns the telephones and the newspapers and magazines. Of course not. The tools belong throughout the organization doing lots of different things for different groups. Maybe not ALL groups, but it should be up for consideration.
What the marketers own are the marketing uses of the tools. Do we agree?
Chris – thanks for commenting! Yes we agree. That’s an excellent way of putting it – the tools are shared universally and their enabling empowers the different groups and therefore the organization as a whole. I would go even further and liken the marketers to “sherpas” both owning the use of the tools and also guiding the organization with the “how best to use” the tools. What an exciting thought.