Their touch point, frame of reference, what gets their interest…is the ‘human experience’. Period.

Today’s American consumers (whose ever changing life stages must be taken into consideration) start their relationship with your business by examining and experiencing your intent and motivation. Consumers interact with brands like they do with other humans.  Since they highly value authenticity and transparency in relationships, all the more this is true regarding brand communication.

This is why your story…your purpose, your heart should be at the core of your branding. Your brand needs to be able to ‘touch’ the human heart in order to even get consideration in the first place. That is why sales pitches, hype, fast talking and slick in-your-face intrusive advertising does NOT work any longer.

Show me your interesting story (your human touch point) and you can call it a branding or anything else you like.

He indicated a busy businessman would pay $20 month to have their Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo or Bebo account updated, messages replied and so on and this would be way cheaper than hiring a new employee in-house or contracting independent U.S workers.

Sounds reasonable right? Well I guess it is if you want a surefire way to go out of business quickly in this new day and age. Look…haven’t we had enough experience with what a bad idea this greed driven approach is yet?

The notion you can use ‘canned’ conversations, get rich quick schemes, famous quotes, and other non relevant chatter to build real relationships with customers in the ‘socialsphere’ is just plain gimmick and lazy approach thinking to try and capture consumers. People are way too smart for this!

Today’s consumer not only can read right through this type of hype and pitch…they will absolutely loathe you for it.

Am I saying having a 3^rd party service your social media marketing is a bad thing? Absolutely not! In fact, it can be a brilliant action on your part and certainly position your business probably faster and more effectively than you can on your own.

What I am saying here is don’t think you can be lazy or half stepping this stuff.  The work necessary to provide targeted and relevant content that is sincere and meaningful on behalf of your business rather than a bunch of noise, will and should rest on your shoulders. That means you have to be willing as well as sincerely committed to doing the work it takes to successfully engage with your customers and potential clients in the online social scene. It should be placed as a priority right up there with the other things you are doing to grow your business.

In my experience working with clients it saddens me to see many are not willing nor do they see the importance of truly committing to adding Social Marketing into their everyday marketing mix and strategies. And don’t think that I’m finding this with just small business. The folks over at Social Times posted an article on this very thing… 50% of Companies Entering Social Media Have Plan. Their take on a couple of recent reports on this topic revealed even large corporations are not investing their time, money and efforts to create meaningful strategies and plans in order to ensure their company is emotionally connecting with their target markets. Many think you can rest on your brand, just ‘show up’ or put on a charade to appear you are in the trenches with 21st century marketing and they are in with the customer.

Not true! Today’s new business era will no longer support or tolerate status quo mindsets and approaches. Just like having an offline relationship takes lots of personal investment, so it is with online. No free rides for marketers. No free rides for business. People do not care about your brand like you think they do. This is the age of the great awaking for anyone in business. Integrity, intent, motives and transparency are the tell-tell signs of what a business really wants from and with a customer.

What about you? Does your business have a plan, well defined strategies for incorporating Social Media into your marketing and business processes? If not, would you if you knew how to get started? Let me hear from you what you feel you need in order to transport your business into the 21^st century way of doing business.

With so many things available through technology to market and reach your customer directly today…why don’t more business owners take on more of their own marketing efforts?

You would have to have been on another planet this past decade not to know we have entered into a new business era. This is so a direct-to-consumer market now. People want customization and personalization and a one-to-one experience.  The middle man and gatekeepers are dying off by the droves in every industry segment!

One thing I’ve discovered and relate to as a consumer over the past few years is people want more than a transaction! They want a meaningful connection.

That’s one reason the middle guy can’t deliver anymore. People want real. Who better can deliver ‘real’ connections than you…owner of the business?

The way I see it, you have a really huge edge over those who just hand off all their marketing to some agency or organization that probably cares more about you paying your invoice to them than if your customers really have a lasting emotional connection with you and your business. That edge you have is YOU know your products and services best and you know your customers and can interact with them on a personal level regularly. What gets me though is I see lots of business owners not take advantage of this huge opportunity either because of fear of the new digital frontier (although they don’t readily admit it) or because of what I call ‘Status Quo Mindset”.  You know…it’s the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” or “I don’t care about all that Internet stuff it’s not hurtin my business”. RIGHT!

Well, I’m convinced business has changed forever…not all are going to be successful in this new business era because there will be many who will not change. We hate change for some reason when that is what life is full of. But that is another story

Point is, if you are recognizing you gotta do something different to not only compete but transform your business…technology and Social Media has made it sooooooo possible for businesses to be more hands on with their marketing if used properly. Blogging, Social Networks, Twitter (your 24/7 broadcasting network), Share bookmarks, and more all provide you with direct customer interaction and get this… Most of the tools are Free!

Yep, it’s true. Many marketers don’t want you to realize this but Do-It-Yourself Marketing can work well to move your business in front of others because you are the one in the center of building relationships with your customer. And, you can do an excellent job to market your business YOURSELF.

Am I saying you just get online and jump in and see where you end up? No. Am I saying you should not seek out professionals in marketing to help your business? No again. Why that is what I do for a living!!J

What I am saying is YOU should learn about the DIY options available to help your business and enlighten yourself on the importance of the new landscape in marketing and relating to your customers in this digital economy.

I’m also saying you should seek out marketing professionals who want to empower YOU by teaching you how to do this yourself rather than them selling you a bunch of hype and programs to hold you hostage so you feel you have to have them to help you do this successfully.

Look friend, all I’m trying to relay is this is a brand new business era we are in. Don’t let technology or anything else keep you away from taking the reins of your business and guiding it into 21^st century marketplace. You have a lot to lose if you don’t DIY.

So I decided to check out what was going on and lo and behold, many fellow tweets were voicing their not so nice things about P Diddy (Sean “Diddy” Combs).

See for yourself…

#unfollowdiddy is trending so I read his tweets. He’s less of a jerk than I expected, but arrogant as he**. Twitters taking him down a peg.

#unfollowdiddy FOLLOW ME FOR A FREE #unfollowdiddy T SHIRT -ONE WINNER EVERY HOUR SM L XL

Good Morning twit fam!! I see the movement #unfollowdiddy is still going strong!

I think I will #unfollowdiddy even though I never followed him because it seems to be the cool thing to do today.

@iamdiddy if you love your followers so much, why not follow them back? #unfollowdiddy {so…why not?}

#unfollowdiddy because he’s a loser!

#unfollowdiddy It’s not because he hit 1 million. It’s how he did it. He kept screaming at people to RT. It was unnatural.

WOW! He is getting slammed by ‘the people’!! This is just a very small sampling of what is on the mind of the fans.

This whole #unfollowdiddy campaign is freaking hilarious. I unfollowed him a long time ago because he was so annoying.

I think they hurt Diddy’s feelings…he’s taken the #unfollowdiddy thing personally…LOL

What did he do to receive so much wrath?

That’s not the focus of my sharing today but I can tell you it had to do with folks perceiving he has double standards.

The point I am wanting to make in bringing this to your attention is not to spread gossip but to AGAIN backup up my position with real live facts…your brand is in the hands of the people.

And as you can see…it doesn’t matter WHO you are. If you are a super star or a politician, a local restaurant, a freelancer, or whatever. In minutes, you can be swept up in a fury of good or bad PR (People Release) and it can have huge repercussions (both good or bad).

What can you do to try and make sure what happened to P Diddy (Sean “Diddy” Combs) today does not happen to you?

Here are just a few proactive things to help ensure you don’t get on the bad list.

Be Real! People are fed up with lip service and falseness. Don’t be fake! Old fashioned things like character, honor and integrity will take you a long way in today’s marketplace both online and off (imagine that, this is back in style!).

Care about People! Don’t get full of yourself. Pay attention to what you do and how you treat people online and off. Don’t treat some better than others because they have more stature. You never know who you are dealing with and that can come back and bite you someday. Someone is always watching and talking about you and your business or brand. You cant fake care!

Don’t be Just a Taker! In today’s community minded economy, being a genuine giver is an expected and appreciated quality. What can you do to help others better their lives?

Take Your Tribe Serious! If you are in the position to have a following no matter how large or small, see that as a privilege, not a right. If you have such a following it is your responsibility to learn all you can on how to be the best you can for them and how to nurture your tribe. Here’s something I don’t see much of… help someone you don’t know move up a notch in their business. Like Gary Vaynerchuck says (paraphrased)…Social Equity is as valuable to anyone in business as Financial Equity. This is Tribenomics for sure.

If you are not in tune with how social community and social media works and how to best position your business and brand…get a professional to help you get positioned for this right now! Because here’s the thing…with or without you, the people rule!

P.S. If you need some advice or referral for help on this please feel free to contact me at hn @ strategicbusinessdesigner.com

Apparently the marketing gurus in this company (and most other corporations for that matter) have not taken into consideration every move they make…we are watching them…and Twittering!

All over the country people were Twittering about their unhappy experience in “real-time“.  This is the power of the Social Network folks!

It’s for certain, many folks on were not happy campers. Just look at some of the comments I saw coming across Twitter…

one dollar flip flop day at old navy : hate hate hate flip flops : hate hate hate old navy : hate everyone buying flip flops right now

I just hope that Old Navy took names of everyone who CAMPED OUT for flip flops, in the interests of future gene pool cleansing

Da%$#^…old navy is out of $1 flip flops…i should have known.

In Old Navy people are fighting over the flip flops.I’m not even joking.

No more flip flops at old navy. Like 0 pairs left. People are intense.

Old navy was a bunch of B.S.

OLD Navy will remember the next time they have a $1.00. They had to close the store!

Craziness at Old Navy, all for cheap plastic shoes! So not worth it!

Will Old Navy try to do damage repair? That remains to be seen. What I do know is this should be a lesson for all of us in business but especially for you big guys.

No longer are you in control of your brand. The people are! Anyone in business not recognizing this must have checked out awhile back.

But here the thing, it’s not enough to just recognize this. You better be proactive and THINK through your marketing, services, products, advertising, etc.

Just sitting around the table dreaming up promotions and such is very dangerous in this new era. Heck, I’m still upset with KFC when they would not take my coupon I downloaded from the Oprah offer. That turned into a PR nightmare for them even if they don’t know it.

What matters is what the customer thinks…PERIOD!

America’s 14.6 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) were responsible for more than $6.7 billion in locally generated, locally targeted interactive advertising in 2008 – more than half of the US total, according to a recently released report from Borrell Associates, which predicts these numbers will grow significantly as activities continue to shift online.

Here is the kicker, many Marketers don’t understand about small businesses though. The report also indicated more than two-thirds of them were allocating their online advertising expenditures on advancing their own websites rather than online ads per say.

Being a web professional for many years now I say this is a smart business move on the part of small businesses. Your web presence is one of the most valuable assets you have in business today no matter what size your business is.

The concern here is…you really need to understand what are the most advantageous strategies you should be using for your business presence online and the why and how to be in control of this most precious business asset and investment. Gone are the days of leaving your website in the hands of your “web people”.

I see time and time again web clients who do not understand the value of their web presence, how to strategically position themselves online, how to guide web professionals to build web media that works for your objective and the importance of being in control of your web destiny.

It is for that reason I will begin to write a series on why today’s businesses (entrepreneurs, SMB’s, freelancers, mid & large, B2C, B2B, etc.)  must take a fresh look at one of the most powerful tools they have at their disposal…their website and web presence. Stay turned!

]]> http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com/2009/04/small-businesses-are-big-players-on-the-web/feed/ 0 http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com/2009/04/marketing-is-not-conversation/ http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com/2009/04/marketing-is-not-conversation/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:38:17 +0000 Hazel http://www.strategicbusinessdesigner.com/?p=194 Lately I have been hearing all over the web ‘marketing is conversation‘ and you better be on board with social media or you are not marketing.

I say that’s hog wash (I get it! Like pigs wash!).

I am not going to be arrogant enough to say I have the total explanation of what marketing means or what it is because I believe it encompasses really everything you do in your business.

But I will say I know it is about a whole lot more than conversation. No doubt, conversation is one of the “tools’ or methods we can use…

Lately I have been hearing all over the web ‘marketing is conversation‘ and you better be on board with social media or you are not marketing.

I say that’s hog wash (I get it! Like pigs wash!).

I am not going to be arrogant enough to say I have the total explanation of what marketing means or what it is because I believe it encompasses really everything you do in your business.

But I will say I know it is about a whole lot more than conversation. No doubt, conversation is one of the “tools’ or methods we can use when marketing.

Marketing TODAY starts with the state of purpose or motive of the business leader(s), entrepreneur, or corporation. What I mean by that is to attract and keep customers today means having the right motives towards your customer and those involved with your business.  The soul of the business is the parent of the marketing strategies and activities. Whatever is under the covers of the soul of the business is where the true marketing emerges.

My point is, true marketing is not about you its about your beliefs, intentions and heart towards your customers and those who intersect with your business. Conversation is mostly noise if there is no passion and respect for those you service.

It’s really simple. “As a man thinks, so he is”…”as a business soul is, so is its marketing”.

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This is consumer power using social media to the 10th power!!! I predict this video will spread like wildfire and I also believe many  B of A customers will join in on this move.

This is a perfect example of what I have been saying for awhile now…this is the Age of the Super Consumer. Businesses both large and small have nowhere to hide anymore when it comes to their customers.

In fact, let it go on the record my belief is transparency is the new customer service and authenticity is the new differentiators in business today. What are you doing to position your business for this shift?

One thing is for sure… Bank of America or Bend over America better have a great social media PR expert on staff.

Recently Burger King’s advertisement antics have been a marketing nightmare if not corporate suicide in my opinion. What the heck is going on over there at corporate BK anyway? It seems as though they are trying to impress us with your tasteless presentations using “shock” propaganda to get our attention.

Really now, business must be pretty bad for Burger King when you feel you have to resort to making fun of and disrespecting Latinos or try to convince parents the BKing singing about his love for square butts, and his desire to “get with” SpongeBob while ladies shake their booties and “square butts” to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” is unbelievable! And get this: the ad was made in partnership with the children’s television station, Nickelodeon.

I read the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has started a letter writing campaign to ask BK and Nickelodeon to pull the ad and respect our children. Shine reported many parents were outraged over this commercial but the truth is I also read some of the parents comments on the site found no offense to this type of advertisement (I was really disturbed by that!).

I have been in business for over 20 years now. I believe with all my heart business (large and small) has a supreme responsibility to the well being of our audience and fellowman. Business today has an incredible opportunity to show they have a soul, to usher in change for good, provide solutions that benefit the people, and actually lead in the marketplace. Coupled with the fact most consumers don’t trust the integrity of most companies today and there is a very real chance consumers are conversing about your company via the social network, why would you not pay attention to what your motives are when it comes to serving your customer?

I believe the days of being in business to “just make money” are quickly existing. Business today has the most awesome opportunity to step out of the pack by being built around a meaningful purpose that brings good to the whole…not just their pockets. Yes…I believe the loss of business ethics as a principle driving force for many companies (entrepreneurs and small business included) is one of the reasons we are seeing such a breakdown in trust and relationships with the customer.

(SmartPros) “The biggest victim of ethical lapse is trust. A small breach of ethics is often known only between a few people. But this knowledge can destroy trust between fellow employees, and from there make its way up the ladder, destroying trust between employee and supervisor, and between divisions of companies. When ethical lapses become rampant, employee productivity declines, loyalty follows, soon major breaches such as employee theft begin to appear. Eventually, and worst of all, the most important advantage a firm has, the trust between a firm and its clients, erodes. Why has such an important topic as business ethics gone unnoticed, even actively ignored? The biggest reason is that ethics is largely misunderstood. Ethical behavior-behavior conducted with honesty and integrity, has recently become muddled up with moral or political questions”.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

So I guess the question here is does business have an obligation to ethical standards? In my books YES! My business will always keep this in the forefront. I’m jus sayin.