This is going to come as a suprise to some, but Social Media is nothing new. Social Media is actually any system for the transport of 2-way communications between individuals. The key word in my definition is 2-way. Standard media, or industrial media as some people call it is a 1 way communication. Newspaper, Television, and Radio are examples of industrial media. After a news report, you can’t knock on the television and interact with the news anchor. How great would it be that after you read an editorial in a newspaper, you could respond back to the writer your disagreement?
Welcome to the world of Social Media!
It’s also allowed the average user to converse back with individuals, and thus made the world a whole lot smaller. With a few clicks, individuals from around the world can easily share pictures, music, video, and more.
But Social Media has changed marketing. While it hasn’t done so yet, it’s in the process of putting the main stay marketing companies back on their feet. They don’t get it, they don’t understand how to use it.
Please are sick of seeing over 800 ads a day for products they don’t care about. As a woman, why would you want to see an add for a men’s clothing? As a man, why would you want to see ads for maskara? When ads are targeted toward them, they are much more likely to respond. More importantly the wall that people have built up to broadcast advertising diminishes quickly.
While social media does provide children, families, and friends the opportunity to share personal information about their lives. But for marketers it offers the ability to target individuals for your product. If you want to find someone on the big island of Hawaii you can do that, men 18-23 easy, single women 18-24 no problem.
However, there is a right way to market and a wrong way to market. The key to social media marketing is relationship building and permission marketing. It’s a matter of carefully monitoring individuals that might be most interested in your product and building a conversation with them until they are ready to make a purchase. But the conversation isn’t about the product, it’s about life and how you can help that individual.
I recommend the 80/20 rule. Meaning 80% of all your communication using social media should be providing knowledge, assistance, and friendship building. 20% can be sales. When you start to cross that 20% threshold, you’ll have backlash.
There are some alternate benefits to this which we’ll discuss in a future post. But probably the most overlooked… the fact that price elasticity melts away with social media marketing. This means it’s possible to charge more than your competitors if you’re engaged in this form of marketing.
Tags: 80/20, marketing, social media
Communicating With Your Customers
Marketing is a form of communication. Marketing with Social Media is all about changing from a 1-way conversation that are the standard ads you see, to 2-way. Different companies use different methods to speak with their customers. The most important thing is to start building this 2-way conversation in some fashion.
Some use blogging, some mass emails, some even do podcasts. But VERY few use video. Why is this?
As far as we can see, Here are the major reason why people don’t use video:
- People in general don’t like being on camera
Many people don’t like being on video. This can be for many reasons: they aren’t comfortable with the way they look or sound, they feel that people don’t respond to them on video, and other reasons they are confident in themselves. Alternatively, they might not want their name or face associated with an enterprise.
- Video takes more planning
Although in general it is true that video takes more planning, once a process is in place, all that’s necessary is a topic. If a company is thinking about creating a video blog, it’s fairly simple to create a video. All that’s necessary is a topic and a quiet place to record.
- Post-production takes time
Sure, making a professional commercial requires lots of Post Production or PostPro. (Post production involves editing, adding graphics, music, etc.) But, if it’s a video blog this isn’t necessary. Videos can be simple, with maybe just a single graphic if any. It’s not necessary to have a fancy production. There are some easy low cost and free tools for simply adding graphics etc. In fact one individual we’ve consulted can begin recording and have it posted online in less than 30 minutes.
- Desire to have perfection
A video that is not a commercial does not need to be perfect. A few uhhs, and umms, are perfectly acceptable. In fact having a few items that make the video non-perfect make it more down to earth. Remember again, you’re having a conversation. What person speaks perfectly every moment of everyday? Be real.
- Equipment purchase expensive
Many laptops now come with built in cameras. If your computer doesn’t have one, webcams can be purchased at just about any electronics store for $50 or less. These are all that’s necessary for these type of communications.
Once again, the most important step is getting the message out there. Speak to your customers and let them speak back to you through video or text comments. I remember visiting in the early 1990s Disney World’s Epcot Center’s “Innovations.” There I saw the first AT&T Video Phone. I was excited about the coming possibilities. Video is the coming form of communication. Years ago we were promised that by now communications would almost all be video. It’s taken a long time for the technology to transfer the video to catch up, but we’re finally getting there and it’s time that your brand catch on to become an early adopter and gain the benefits that offers.
The companies that use video to demonstrate products, offer communications between sales people and clients, and video blogs between employees and customers are the ones that will be building the strongest communities. The sooner, the better.
(You’ll notice their video isn’t perfect. If Southwest can get away with raw footage with little to no editing, you can too!)
There are many tools out there for video sharing. We offer consulting service on how to use each of these to their fullest extent. (We use iMovie to do basic video editing, and then share via YouTube.)
Here are a few free sites for using video in your business:
YouTube (
www.YouTube.com) – The most widely used video sharing service out there. Youtube offers users the ability to reply with text or video comments thus furthering the two way conversation.
Jumpcut (
www.JumpCut.com) – is a service of Yahoo!. It allows users to upload and share videos. But the most important feature is it allows you to edit online. You don’t need specific software.
iMovie (
www.Apple.com/iMovie) – iMovie is free software that comes on every Mac. It’s one of the easiest to use piece of video editing software out there. Semi-professional video can be created in just minutes.
Tags: blogging, video, video tools, vlog
Marketing is a form of communication. Marketing with Social Media is all about changing from a 1-way conversation that are the standard ads you see, to 2-way. Different companies use different methods to speak with their customers. The most important thing is to start building this 2-way conversation in some fashion.
