There
is a lot of buzz about online social media and organizations are
jumping in to ride the wave hoping to get something, anything and
everything. However few people think in terms of social media off line
and subsequently do not comprehend what it really is.
I was on a call with a client representative who was trying to sell
a prospect on social media. The prospect was talking about using social
media to market their business. The representative said “social media is easy and doesn’t cost much and began to leave the wrong impression with the prospect”.
After the call I suggested that the client representative not try and
sell something that they have no reference to nor enough understanding
to effectively inform prospects as to what social media is and isn’t.
The client representative responded with “I know what
social media is. It is peer to peer endorsements on line used to sell
products and services. You try and make it too complicated and your
discussion of it is too academic for most people to understand. I can sell social media because I distill it down to a non-academic and understandable level.
Arrogance And Ignorance Are Not “Social”
The client representative with whom I was dealing with has 25 years
experience in marketing and has worked for many of the Fortune 500
firms. He believes he understands all things marketing. A likely profile of many marketers trying to use social media to sell something. The illustrated conversation above was off line and the content and context of the conversation
illustrated how people who think they know something try and make
something understandable without really knowing. Subsequently when
trying to sell something you don’t understand you end up misleading
others who don’t understand.
The essence of any good conversation, off line or online, is
relevant and relative to listening, learning and applying value for the
benefit of those engaged. Selling is a relational process and should
be aimed at understanding a prospects need before you try and sell them
something that doesn’t fulfill the need. Marketing, on the other hand,
is a process of leveraging mass media to attract an audience of
prospective buyers. Marketing and selling a two distinctively
different processes. One focuses on building a relationship based on
value while the other focuses on delivering a message to a large
audience.
Social Media Is Both Online And Off Line
Social media is both online and off line when you think in terms of
building relationships and not in terms of marketing your message.
Marketing is a one way messaging channel and social media is a two way
communications channel online and off line. The objective of
communications is to exchange “conversational value” which both
parties, or many, benefit from. Our communications offline can reflect
value or not. The same applies to online with the only difference is in
reach and impact of communicating.
The current market of “online social media” is rejecting advertising
and marketing messages of the past. If 98% of off line ads don’t get
any response then why do we think using the same method online will
work? If your off line communications doesn’t create value from
knowledge then you are not likely going to create valuable
relationships that last. If you mislead people about how to use social
media by copying what others are saying or doing with it then they and
you will become part of the crowd that is being rejected.
Social media is communications.
It happens off line and online and the value you create is directly
related to what, where, when,how, who and why you communicate. Results
come from doing things right and for the right reason. What used to be
limited to off line has now converged with online. Don’t
believe it? The world does and is trying use it for different
purposes. The purpose of communicating has always been and always will
be relational, good, bad and indifferent.
Trying to apply old knowledge to knowledge you don’t have can be dangerous.
I hope this was understandable and wasn’t too academic.
What say you?