Inherent in every change are risks and opportunities. Indeed, the Chinese symbol for crisis (a time for extreme change) has included in it the two characters for danger and opportunity. If you keep your eyes open, you can find the silver lining in every lurking cloud.
With this introduction, let’s explore what it would mean to move your marketing towards a presence in social media.
| Risks | Rewards |
|---|---|
| Transparency demands authenticity | Builds customer trust and loyalty |
| Negative comments | Provides a feedback loop |
| Loss of control over your message | Fosters “Tribe Building” |
Transparency / Trust
In social media, you will not get away with any deceptive practices.
There’s the famous blog, “Wal-marting Across America,” written by RVer’s Jim and Laura as they traveled cross-country, parking in Walmart parking lots overnight. They blogged about the many wonderful people they met at Walmart and along their journey. The big problem with this was that Jim and Laura did not disclose their trip was fully financed by Walmart. Opps! This did not go down well with the blog’s audience. You can read more about this story here.
Trust takes time. People trust you when time and time again you deliver beyond expectation, you haven’t violated peoples’ privacy or their intelligence, and you honor and respect everyone you connect with. In your personal life, the rewards for trust are loyal, deep and satisfying relationships that last over decades. In your business, trust returns the same benefits, with the added addition of sustained revenues and profits for your business, and customers thrilled with your products and services for a lifetime.
Negative Comments / Feedback Loop
Whenever you open yourself up to comments, you run the risk of someone saying something bad about you or your business. Whether you provide this opportunity to your customers as a suggestion box by your cash register, an audience survey after a presentation, or through a comment feature on your blog, there is no two ways around it – you WILL get negative comments.
This is a good thing.
First of all, people are talking about you whether you want them to or not. By providing a place for them to grouse in plain site, you have the opportunity to respond appropriately to their complaints. It’s often been said that for every customer who directly complains to a company, there are another ten who do not.
Your response then, is up to you. The new buzz phrase is “Customer Service is the New PR”. Do you treat the service you supply to your existing customers as the most important arrow in your marketing quiver? If so, you’ll have a system in place to manage these contact points, along with a consistent message. Even if you can’t satisfy everyone, an honest attempt to respond to someone’s dissatisfaction will go a long way towards improving your company’s public image (and, subsequently, the bottom line.)
Loss of Control / Builds Tribe
If you’ve got a business product or service that inspires conversation, you’re in luck! Having an active social media presence will bring your customers together in a place and get them talking. I can appreciate this is a bit scary. I can hear you say, “I won’t be able to control what people say about me” “What effect will a social media space have on my brand image?” “What if the discussion gets out of hand?”
Yes. All these questions and comments are valid. However, you are kidding yourself if you think you ever had any sort of control over any of these areas in the first place. People will always re-define your product or service according to what it means to them.
This “tribe” of people connected to your business or brand are looking for leadership. This is where you can really make a difference in providing guidance and support. My guru, Seth Godin, has a book devoted to this topic, “Tribes, We Need You To Lead Us”. You can get a version of this book from Amazon
Next in this series – Why social media is so important to the small business owner.
