#27 stood out:
From my experience with social networking, I'd like to share a few things to keep in mind when implementing a social media/networking plan:
I think the important thing to remember is that we're all people and even though we're communicating electronically, we still want to engage on a personal, "human" level. Just because you set up online profiles doesn't mean that you're communicating with people. Maintaining online relationships is just like maintaining relationships with your relatives.
Be Consistent
Social networking is an ongoing process - it's not something you do for a few weeks and stop because you don't think it's working or you're not gaining new customers. Just like any relationship, it takes time to build trust with people. If you're doing it to improve communications with your customers, social networking is something you don't want to stop doing. It would be like cutting off your customer service lines.
Have Fun
Many companies look at online marketing as a cut-and-paste project. Just have fun with it and view every person you connect with as a real friend. The more "real" connections you have with people, the less you'll have to work at it because people will naturally just tell other people about you. That's the power of word-of-mouth!
Have any other tips to share?
the line in your entry that caused me to write this is
"most companies look at online marketing as a cut and past project"
excellent observation. poor approach from their side. i am working with a client who is looking to redo their online marketing after they realized that creating pictures of their mailers and emailing them or posting them online was not doing the job. they are amazed at the possibilities of using online tools to customize, personalize, and create new ways for marketing.
this is the change we need to see for customers to actually embrace online marketing: it needs to talk to them, in their language, at their level. not to 40 million consumers equally.
thanks for the great post!
Posted by: Esteban Kolsky | July 17, 2008 9:09 AM | Permalink to Comment