With Social Media transforming the web more and more each day, the traditional Marketing techniques of shotgun advertising and shouting out hoping your clients will hear, are falling to the wayside. Gone are the days of faceless marketing where a “brand” hidden behind its logo could pump out thoughts or advertising and the masses would rush to purchase.
A great acronym I caught a few weeks back, tweeted around by my friend @KerryatDell was:
B2P – Business to People
Sure we function as B2B or B2C, but to survive in the coming years we need to recognise that our clients are real people and treat them like it!
Its now a two way stream. We need to be engaging with customers – talking and understanding their needs. United Breaks Guitars is a great case of where a corporation, who ignored its customer, is hit by the power of social media – amplifying word of mouth.
http://www.youtube.com/v/5YGc4zOqozo&hl=en&fs=1
People, our customers or clients, expect us to know a lot more than their name and profession – we all have a browser and Google search in front of us, there’s no excuse!
Likewise, they expect to know more about the people behind the logo. Sure corporate websites can feature their employees, but why stop there.
With a plethora of social and business networking sites at our fingertips, we should be building our own personal brand and supporting that of our workplace.
It is well overdue that I write some 101s on this.
Nick Allen - Marketing, Growth & Running 