Lately I’ve been putting together some pretty elaborate plans for a couple of different organizations who are not currently active in marketing themselves in social media space, or even online.
This morning I awoke with a realization that sometimes we’re missing the forest for the trees. We spend a lot of time talking about how companies can use tools like Twitter and Youtube and Facebook, but we’re not spending nearly enough time talking about what marketing in 2009 really means.
Tools are just tools, and they’ll all go away. Twitter is great, but it’s only going to be great for a finite amount of time–that’s just how the internet works. It may be great for ten years, or we may wake up tomorrow and realize that a technology has emerged that is a complete game changer. Even Google will eventually be usurped by something bigger and better. That is just how the internet business the world works.
The ‘how’ paradigm of social marketing can change in a matter of weeks and days as people migrate towards more engaging online tools. I may suggest today that a company CEO starts creating content that will build connections with potential future business partners, but if we try to implement some long term 3 year strategy using Facebook and Twitter we’re doomed to failure. Facebook and Twitter may not even exist in 3 years, but I can assure you they won’t look the same as they do now even just months from today.
So what can companies looking to market themselves online do? 2 things. (1) Adopt a culture inside the organization that embraces a “let’s try this” attitude. The only way to adjust to an ever changing internet is to remain open and adaptable all the time. Some initiatives will fail. (2) Engage your customers where they choose. While tools may change, this whole thing called the internet is not going away anytime soon–or more accurately the societal shifts that have already happened since the internet became available to the public are only going to continue evolving.
So stop worrying about tools, and start worrying about fostering a company and culture that is based on adapting to and engaging with your customers.
Very nice post. My personal spin on it and the market place is that we are in fact de-evolving instead of evolving. Sure, it seems we are making progress and becoming better informed and inundated with technology and know-how, but when it comes to communication with others we are going to a simpler means of communication. When people can have conversations with abbreviated messages such as lol, wtf, & other various things I have no knowledge of, is it evolution or de-evolution? People are certainly able to accept information at a faster pace these days, but to maximize that we have had to dumb-down the information.
That being said, taking the ‘Let’s try’ mentality is a challenge for the old-school people still controlling the dollars of most companies. Having been in situations where you are trying to do something different, whether that be design or e-book publication, but being told ‘the client wouldn’t like that.’ without even consulting with the client about the idea is a bad decision. Without someone to teach the ‘clients’ that it is all about getting through the clutter of today’s communications the mentality will take years to change.
Of course it is more cost effective to adopt this method online as opposed to traditional marketing mediums, so some people will be more willing to try and they will be the ones who grow.
Educate those clients, push the envelope of the comfort level of the agency and cause a kafluffle…do whatever it takes to get through the information overload of today’s society. Just have fun doing it.