|
It is said that the best sales persons are capable of selling a fridge to Eskimos. Is it still the case or was it ever a positive aptitude or attitude? Some live by this adage, but most companies have moved from salesmen to account managers, thereby showing their desire to develop long term relationships. Though we are mainly speaking about corporations offering services or products requiring maintenance; the follow-up part has gained importance.
|
From T-shirt designer La Neskerie
|
This has encouraged many companies to invest in software that will help them simplify communications and processes. Those are the likes of CRM, ERP, agenda’s, etc.
Social media and its marketing aspect have widened the frame, integrating a method of communicating easily on a broader scale, while at the same time giving a feeling of personal relationship. This also means that the account manager might, with time, see his role evolve and his title change once again.
Social media strategies are gaining ground in larger companies. Furthermore, such strategies observe an increase in their budget share, which also means that it becomes necessary to train and internally prepare its employees to learn a new set of tools and adopt different frame of mind.
The issue with social media is that it is still considered by many as a testing ground, an interesting solution that has not yet revealed proven results. On the one hand the actual economic situation forces companies to review their online activities, but on the other hand, many marketers start to understand the importance of dialogue with their customers and potential market. This results in an internal need to sell the potentiality of social media and web 2.0 to the upper management. By explaining the benefits, final decision-makers could comprehend the necessity to continue or start investing in a dialogue and hopefully view this as a proactive solution to a commonly complex market, which requires new innovative measures.
We all know it is not an easy task to sell something to the final decision-makers, even more so if it’s not their field or if they have never heard about the subject. In order to provide support to our readers and for those interested by our platform to come, we have asked on LinkedIn how social media specialists would formulate and define social media in order to help clarify its importance.
 |
We will provide you with the best contributed answer as well as a PDF copy of all received answers. Please feel free to comment on our post and give your personal insight. We have received a total of over 30 answers and many keywords have repeatedly resurfaced:
Networking; conversation; no spam; involvement; damage control and; cost-cutting.
|
Some gave to social media and web2.0 a more proactive role while others would position it is a way to control the situation.
Our personal favourite goes to Anthony Leaton (SEO, Email Marketing and Link Specialist at TravelCLICK) who succeeded into conveying key terms and ideas cherished by the Zackbrandit team.
“Why is this? For the first time customers have power in defining or redefining a brand or service. From love groups to flame groups and review sites, the brands are getting involved to defend and redefine themselves as human, listening, active and evolving. Once you have someone or a team doing this it earns you public 'global' respect in minutes!
People are now engaging the things they like, hate or just want to share. This goes back to c2c principle [word of mouth recommendation]. Give this one a try. Type in snowboarding into FLICKR.com . Now, sort by MOST INTERESTING. Now pick some photos you are attracted to. From seeing this, would you be interested or dissuaded from looking at some pictures.
I edged away from the company's photos and went for someone LIKE ME! The photos were nice, by some photographer who went somewhere and won a prize. He took some very good pictures of HOW HE SAW THE UNIQUENESS of the place he went. These are high quality pictures from a member of the public. Not some glossy photos of a utopian brand vision. This is the point.
Social media is finding people like you and experiencing the same thing. It's about knowing what they like, talking to them about it and then doing it yourself.
So, give me an example of how companies react? Daily [check out the link 1 below]. If you're interested in a hotel in Barcelona and had the budget how would you react to these replies? Would you be more or less interested?
So what have we learned? That people like to share and find likeminded people and things that they enjoy. Why? People are tired of being told. They want to get it right, if they can, first time. What consumer groups have been doing for years and companies have been avoiding in replying and they hope that it'll all go away - these days are over. If sites are optimised in the right way - customers will either defend, remain passive or attack a brand. Thus, the brand again looses part of its control to the customers!
Other than motivational theories of Maslow, the things I want to spend my money on, I want to know if they're worth it and how people have enjoyed it.
People still like great images and to have the latest ipod. So branding and other media still has its place. However, with any brand that no-longer delivers on its promises needs to be very careful with social media.
How you're going to implement the strategy involves significant risk and planning. How you're going to get involved in Web 2.0 is the main question. I would advise a step by step strategy. Don't start off with the facebook widgets or shameless promotion on these sites but rather respond in an honest way to people who like your brand. Give them access to enjoy it. This means show them how you see it [youtube, flickr] and then invite them to reply. How you handle this is by far the most riskiest decision you'll make. Don't make it tacky, make it entertaining. Invite the funniest ways to engage your brand.
Think Marmite's Love it, Hate It... well, this has become a phenomenon. The fan sites and the hate sites re-enforced probably some trivial marketing joke that turned even the brand haters into people who chanted the brand's name!”
[BTW: this all resorts were chosen at random and are not part of me shamelessly marketing clients]
Links:
I believe this summarizes very well our own position.
All the other LinkedIn answers are in PDF.
To finish this post, here is a Chinese proverb shared with us by Frank Feather.
“Tell me and I'll forget;
Show me and I may remember;
Involve me and I'll understand.”
