What if my customers are unhappy with me? Why open myself up to criticism?
Welcome to the flip side. The unhappy customers will want to get their word in too. But the tools that give them the ability to speak out against you are the same tools that give you the ability to listen like never before. And just like when a fight breaks out on the playground, when someone has a beef with you, it’s a guarantee that others will be watching – waiting to see what you do. This will give you an opportunity to shine. Show off your customer service, show your transparency, be willing to take criticism and grow genuine relationships with your customers.
What is the difference between marketing the old way and social media marketing?
For most of the people I come into contact with, the word “marketing” calls to mind brochures and tchotchkes. I don’t like to call myself a marketer anymore, not because I have a problem with the word, but because I’m constantly having to explain that what I do is vastly different from what we’ve all come to know and love about marketing.
The main differences are:
1. Traditional marketing has meant finding segments of people and blasting them with your outbound message in hope that a small percentage of them will need your product or service. The best term for this new marketing is “Inbound Marketing,” coined by my favorite educational resource, Hubspot. Inbound marketing is not about blasting your message out, it’s about attracting prospective clients “in” to you – helping them find you. I really encourage you to check out Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University to learn more. (In the interest of full disclosure, Hubspot isn’t paying me a dime, but I’ve been benefiting from their learning resources for over a year and it’s the least I can do!)
2. Only a marketer can create campaigns around brochures and tchotchkes, but everyone in your organization is responsible for community building with social media. It’s an organization-wide project. Where traditional marketers help fill the lead funnel for sales then never see them again, community builders include everyone who touches your clients, customers or volunteers.
Why shouldn’t I just buy an ad? Ads can appear at the top of Google. Isn’t that easier than all of this social media work?
Rather than reinventing the wheel, I’m going to refer you to the good people at Hubspot who have said it best in their post, “Organic vs. Paid Search.” As Karen Rubin points out regularly on her hit series, Hubspot TV, with paid search, you have to keep paying to see results. Organic search is the gift that keeps on giving. Another interesting tidbit is that people who click on organic results tend to have a higher education than those who click on ads. Just a little food for thought.
