When it comes to the way most people approach social media marketing for the first time, I am reminded of a quote by Henry Ford. Ford said, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have told me 'Faster Horses'."
When I see a steady Twitter stream of news releases, I think "How is this any different than the 'Recent News' section on your web page? " When I see an endless list of "this week's car deals," I wonder, "How is this any different than the classified section of the newspaper?" If social media is so hot and new and so revolutionary...why do you think you can derive any benefit by using it like an old marketing tool?
Social media is about attracting customers by being interesting. Talk about how you are being "green." Tell me about the great charities you support and how you arrange volunteer days so your employees contribute a day of work to Habitat for Humanity or the local food bank. Tell me a funny story about your product or service. Give me information on how to get the most from your product or service. Give me something interesting to keep me coming back for more.
Don't use social media to hawk your products day after day. Be the company talking about something interesting. What are you doing that someone might want to know about? Tweet about those things. Update your LinkedIn network with those things. Put that on your Facebook wall.
Tell me something interesting and I will want to know more. That will lead to sales.
James Snider is a marketing consultant, responsible for developing the 3.4 billion dollar 1394/FireWire market. James has over 16 years of marketing experience with 7 years working for Fortune 100 companies, 8 years as executive director of a non-profit and, since the summer of 2009, as a strategic business development consultant. www.linkedin.com/in/jamessnider
No comments:
Post a Comment