Relationships? Yes, relationships. And not just any relationship. Really solid relationships. If you and your company have solid relations then you have the greatest potential of success within this new business and marketing landscape. Social media has changed the way we communicate, engage and contribute . At the very core, if your company “gets this” than you have the basic understanding of social marketing. People and Relationships.
So put down the spreadsheets, strategy meetings, etc. and take one day to talk to your company about this concept: Have good relations with every customer.
They say that everything that goes around, comes around. Today this is true in two cases:
1. This isn’t a new concept, but one that’s becoming more important. Relationships work best where one party treats the other party how they would like to be treated. If you treat others well the favor is returned.
2. It’s also true in business trends. Think back to the early days of companies (I’m talking early days, before the internet and big box retailers). Let’s use the example of the local drugstore where everyone knows your name, they know what you are going to pick up before you even come to the register and they even make house calls to get your medicine at all hours. Aren’t we coming back to that?
At the very core of this business and marketing evolution its about people. Individual people. It’s not about a company relating to customers. It’s about a company’s people relating with other people (historically called customers). What social media has done is open the channels of communications. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and various other social mediums has allowed us to expand our relations instantly. We can now communicate with other people singly through older methods (phone, snail mail) or several through new technologies Twitter, Facebook, email. Companies can now drill down to individuals. And individual people (easily swelling through these mediums) can relate back to companies through people. Look at your personal life. Are you communicating with more people in different way?
Are you good at relationships? You always continue to build and build your circle of friends and network? You are a people person, have strong relationships than guess what, you are a natural-born social marketer! Now just translate that asset company wide.
When it comes right down to it, one of the key elements in building a strategic social media marketing plan is building relationships. And those relations have are built on trust. It was, in traditional marketing, marketers would send out messages about how good their products were. Blast them out through traditional vehicles such as TV, radio and print. But now know there’s evidence that consumers/customers have learned to ignore these messages. Not only are we ignoring these messages through new technologies and the internet, we don’t trust them. Customer relationships with traditional brands have diminished. This is partly why we are seeing new companies emerge and take brand equity and market share away from established competitors. It’s why we are seeing new brands emerge, like Zappos - who ever thought a shoe store would be so successful online? Do you think Nordstrom is running scared?
If you take the simplicity of what it takes to build relationships and you build that into a company’s core values, you are definitely strengthening your chances of succeeding in today’s market.
Relationships. Are they good? Then that news will be shared. From one person to the next. Are they bad relationships? Well then watch out.
