Craig Sutton
I was reading a wonderful post by Mack Collier on how Social Media is a trust enabler. And it got me to thinking.
He is dead on, it is the 2 way communication that makes Social Media and Marketing so much different than the traditional uni-directional methods. At Learn About Web I talked about how the phonebook is becoming the dinosaur because of how little information you can learn about a business with a smiling picture and some words. Think about that, what do you actually learn from that? Only that company X either has more money or wagered more money that the phonebook could drive traffic to them.
I know, I was recently a gambler!
But a customer in the Web 2.0 world sees things differently. But what about those not familiar with it?
How do we get our customers involved in Social Media?
Now I know some of you people in larger towns may not see this as a relevant issue, but in small towns like ours.. it’s half the battle at least! I am telling Small Business they need to use Social Media, but how do you educate those customers or people in general who know little or nothing about it? The ones not interested in coming to see a Conference on their dime because they don’t understand its merit?
Challenging Question – perhaps it’s been answered, but here are some thoughts I have, and perhaps you can add something to this?
The most obvious – Word of Mouth – Tell them! Talk to them about the benefits you have gained from Social Media and the tools they can use to get involved. Point them to your blog.
Bring a friend/colleague/customer to the speaking portion of a conference, let them learn about about why they should be interested, and perhaps they will join in. Don’t try to take them to training session on their first trip out, the idea is to get them some exposure.
Write about them! Why not have a featured customer blog post and ask them to read it? They would likely share it with all of the people they know and so on!
A discount if they add themselves to one of your Social Media tools? Added value for you and your customer!
Using 2 way communication to gain the attention of people not involved in Social Media seems to be the smarter strategy, after all, we should practice what we preach right?
I’d love to hear if you have anything to add to this list or comments about the idea in general…
Tags: craig sutton, customers, discount, educate, Mack Collier, Marketing, Social Media, teach, value
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Social tools allow for a much more human two-way communication about a business and its products and services. It means that people with an interest can get a much more 1:1 answer to what they want to know about a product or service. I think it’s an evolution.
Thank you for your input Chris!
One of my more in tune customers pointed me to a good article in the Saturday WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122792310060465901.html — sorry but it requires a subscription.
It breaks down the conversational space of social media in a way that anyone can approach it.
You’ve gotta love those clients who are leading you to education.
That said, I often wonder how quickly the social will supplant other online marketing.
I know there are many who, enamored of the new conversation, will think it’s either / or. If it’s either / or, I’m going to choose traditional internet marketing (SEO/SEM). If it’s “and” I’ll choose to toe the water but I still think it’s very demographically driven.
Will
Social media has given us a way to find each other and to put our ideas together. That might be its most important value. While we’re teaching, we’re learning faster than we ever might have except when we were taking on the elements of the natural world way when we first discovered ourselves on the planet. New frontier same people working together. It’s not the act of conversation that counts — it’s what we hear and take from it.
Just follow up your instinct and people will believe you.
To be successful with Internet Marketing (or any business endeavor for that matter) you need to set goals. You need to have something written down that you will look at from time to keep your business focused and in a positive direction. Set small achievable goals at first that when you accomplish it will help build on the larger goal. Work towards the larger goals over time and remember to really be successful you are looking at something that will produce long term results for the efforts your put it over time.