David Meerman Scott is killing off “Social Media”. As a respected Marketer with a new book sitting at #12 on Amazon’s list – I’d say he’s on to something.
Last week, I watched him during a live webinar and he said something that sparked this article. David wants companies to go after the relationship online versus the straight sale.
I agree with David.
Godin talks about creating Art. The positive effect from your Art will create the connection between business and consumer. Organization and volunteer. Celebrity and follower. In a more recent webinar, David talked about Real Time and how it’s an easier pill to swallow for those trying to understand social media marketing.
Twitter. Not Just About What You Eat For Lunch.
Social media is real time. Twitter feeds and Facebook feeds are scrolling right before our eyes. We’re getting news faster and from all angles than ever before. This is an opportunity for us to react faster and capitalize. It’s opportunity businesses should look to, to interact with their customers and increase loyalty.
As David points out, companies that are just starting to research this opportunity have a hard time with the term Social Media. The scary part is, he’s dealing with top 100 companies. What about the micro-business and small business?
How far behind the curve are the mom and pops?
These are the people that know they should be involved in social media. They hear it from their kids, family members and clients. The crux is, they think Facebook is just for sharing photos. When they load up a twitter stream they see a bunch of people talking about what they ate for lunch.
“How is this going to get me more people walking through the door?” they ask.
We need to stop selling the general concept of social media and focus on the Real Time results.What do we mean by Real Time? Let’s take a look at 3 examples.
3 Companies, 2 T-shirts, And 1 Executive Support Rep
Over the last two months I’ve run into my own Real Time exchanges with other companies. Here they are:
cPanel
cPanel makes some great web hosting server software. I use them for servers at Slocum Studio and Meganet. Their twitter team had asked their followers to take a a survey ranking their support team with other web based companies. I tweeted some positive words about their team and I was contacted, thanked, and told I was going to get a t-shirt.
Cloudflare
A new age Content Delivery Network company that MatthewM.org runs on. They are a new company that I discovered via the last TechCrunch Disrupt. Their service recently ran into some technical difficulties. I tweeted about it and was contacted by their team.
Guess what I received?
You got it. An apology and the promise of a t-shirt!
Network Solutions
Most of you are probably really familiar with this company. A Large web hosting, domain registrar, and general supplier of web service based product.
At MegaNet we have a domain registration reseller account from them. Recently they e-mailed all their doman registrar clients that we registered domains for. This e-mail reminded clients that they are really their customers and asked to update their domain contact info.
Guess what really sucks as a reseller? When your supplier contacts your customers that eventually find their lower prices.
Again, I tweeted out from my frustration. I was contacted by their @netsolcares user instructing me to fill out a form. I was promised a 24 hour turn around. Four days later an Executive Support rep has contacted me. I’ve still yet to talk to her about the situation.
Conclusion
If we’re going to engage in real time, we need to ensure we follow through. I’ve yet to receive the t-shirts promised above. Was it good enough for them to just contact me? Maybe. I just hope larger companies are following through with their real time engagement promises.
As marketers, we need to express the new positives of social media to our clients. The old ways of just telling them to jump on the band wagon are dead and gone. We need to show them the results from the Real Time interactions.
For marketers and business owners alike, these real time interactions should translate to more sales. Small business owners will finally see their results “walking in the door.”
Do you have any real time examples like the 3 above? If you’re a marketer, how do you pitch Social Media services to your client?
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