Sell and social media: an oxymoron ?
01/08/10 07:30 AM Filed in: #socialmedia
What is social media, really? Is it a channel? Is it a conversation? Is it a tactic? The answer to all those questions is yes, sort of. Social media is a lot of things to a lot of companies and consumers but above all it's a way to think about your customers and consumers in a new way with a level of respect which in turn means "talk with me", don't sell me.
Some brands like Domino's, and Dell do in fact use Social Media to sell via discounts and special offers. This is a form of promotion and one has to wonder if the extra dollars they are getting via this promotional tactic are really meeting brand objectives or merely selling more at lower margins.
Other brands are using social media to solve customers problems which demand and answer immediately. Have a problem setting up that new surround system and don't want to deal with a phone tree? Go on Twitter and ask your question but you had better answer the customers question in Internet time. This means that someone needs to be on the other end monitoring your Twitter account and it should not be an "intern".
Research has shown that a lot of consumers form relationships with brands because they want discount coupons. The use of coupons is up sharply during the economic downturn and social media is a great way to generate trial but once you start discounting consumers are going to expect it and as soon as you stop your sales could spike down.
So the question becomes; are marketers ready to use social media as part of an integrated brand strategy to both listen to and talk to people rather than seeing social media as a chance to sell? According to Fortune 65% of company social media strategies are going to fail. With more and more money flowing into social media that's a lot of money that is going to be wasted.
Social media is a new way of thinking about consumers but marketers need to first acknowledge that consumers are a hell of a lot smarter than they are today.
