Talk With Me, Not At Me

The social media audience in the US, according to comScore Inc., now exceeds 122 million or 64% of the entire Internet audience. Some would say that the meteoric success of social media is but a flash and people will grow tired of it. Of course, those who are saying it are the traditional marketers and media people who really don't understand it. We have a huge hill to climb to get traditional marketers to accept that we don't like being talked at, presumed or interrupted.

My company joined forces with a highly respectable and very popular printing company, Denison Print. For a couple of years we had talked about being the backend supplier of websites for their large customer base. During those years the owner of this printing company really tried to understand the value of websites beyond being a destination place. It wasn't until I accompanied him on two separate client visits that the light went on. He gets it now.

Topics like engaging in customer conversation, adding value, observing behaviors and adjusting to fill needs lead everyone to understand that social media for business is about authentic respect and true customer service. Marketing 101. Now we have tools that make the process so much easier and effective.

We have gone from a one way information flow where marketers made assumptions of what consumers wanted, to conversations where consumers participate in the evolution of the business....and this scares the traditional business person to no end. Of course change is always scary. The worst thing you can do is try to avoid it.