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December 2007, Issue 46 |
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Just a Little Respect (Is All It Takes for Social Media to Work for You)
By Steve Mann, Social Media Strategist, SAP
Using the Internet to market your business is much more about having the right attitude, understanding of and respect for your customer, and an integrated strategy—than it is about expensive commercial time.
That was the prevailing theme of a recent Bulldog Webinar, Using Social Media to Grow Your Business, hosted by MyVenturepad, one of the newest business sites from Social Media Today. The live Web event featured three leading experts on social media: Best-selling author and global marketing guru Seth Godin; Forrester Research senior analyst Jeremiah Owyang; and me, Steve Mann, social media strategist for SAP.
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"Different," perhaps, but not necessarily "new." Seth Godin, who himself has started several successful companies, spoke passionately about the fact that marketing on the Web is, it turns out, more like marketing in 1600 or 1880—driven by 1:1 trusted referrals and word of mouth—than what Marketing became with the advent of television in the 1950s, a mass media marketing vehicle that was a broad-cast, one-way, controlled endeavor involving static messaging and enormous expense. Because of the lightning-swift way that the Internet proliferates a message, with little expense, and because of the multidirectional, interactive nature of viral marketing, using the Internet to market your business is much more about having the right attitude, understanding of and respect for your customer, and an integrated strategy than it is about expensive commercial time.
A Brave New World of Word of Mouth
Companies that succeed in this world rely less on investment in their brands than they do on building a reputation with "trusted advisors," people known to the customer whose opinions about the company are positively informed. Forrester Research, for example, reports that 83% of online consumers are more likely to turn to peers for their opinion about your company than any other single source. With the growing importance of communications platforms for collaboration among peer groups, such as MyVenturepad, your company has a chance to join the conversation about your reputation, to learn from your customers, and to be heard as well. (Full disclosure: My company, SAP, is the founding sponsor of MyVenturepad.)Some Advice from the Experts About Venturing into Social Media
So what are the first steps to take if you are considering a social media strategy? Seth urged you to enter this new world with a profound respect for your customer, with a strong determination not to squander the attention you are asking for, and a realization that transparency and authenticity should guide you. After all, in a world with so much free information, you can't control the message or hide from your own reputation.Jeremiah stressed a strategic approach: Before you buy a tool or a platform, think about who your customers are and where they are getting their information—and then find them there. Web measurement is now so sophisticated that you can fine-tune your approach to a degree never before available. And in my opinion, social media can greatly improve the intimacy you have with your customer base, thereby promoting customer loyalty and repeat business. All the while, these efforts can also increase the value of your brand and offerings to potential customers as well.
Our own knowledge of social media is expanding at SAP, but it's founded on our success in bringing together a global community (now more than a million) of developers and business process experts. Within this community we developed our own best practices about how to encourage engagement online.
The Bandwagon Is Standing Room Only
But there are other companies that are creating great ways to communicate: IBM, for example, has a defined blogging policy, which it has developed for its 370,000 employees, but also shares with its customers. More and more professionals use LinkedIn to recruit employees and to discuss business trends. Analyst firms, leading consultant firms, and even nonprofits like the Clinton Global Initiative are bringing peers and members together on networked platforms to share information and to collaborate on products and solutions.So my best advice to a CEO or owner thinking of traveling down the social media road? As Seth said in Using Social Media to Grow Your Business, not all CEOs should embrace social media. If you are not willing to embrace transparency, authenticity and respect for your customer, stay away. But you may find that your competitors will be reaping the rewards.
If you'd like to hear the conversation straight from the horses' mouths, visit www.myventurepad.com and click on the red banner.
Steve Mann is a social media strategist for SAP.
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Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, senior manager of Field Marketing.
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