My 20-something daughter made an amazing discovery recently: vinyl records sound better than CDs. She even bought a turntable and loves it. Once in awhile, something old fashioned has an advantage over the latest invention.
The buzz words in the current marketing world are “social media” and “social networking.” Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the like are performing blitzkrieg on the ad world. I’m on the bandwagon, but there’s a fundamental problem there if we’re not careful. The focus is all wrong. It’s far too inward.
Check out the social networking sites and you’ll see what I mean. Facebook wants to know “What’s on your mind?” Twitter asks “What are you doing?” And MySpace… well, it’s MY space. It’s all about me. But good marketers know that the key to making a connection, and a sale, is to make it all about the other person.
Should we avoid social networking? No way! On the contrary, AdServices is committed to social for our own company and our clients. We have a Facebook Page, we Tweet, we have a blog, and the YouTube video is in production. The solution is not to avoid it, but to use it properly – as additional ways to show people we sincerely care about them, and we want to understand their pain points in order to provide solutions. (See earlier posts on www.adservices.net/blog.)
Like vinyl albums, some retro networking methods still sound great. There are times when a customer, client, donor, or investor deserves a phone call or lunch, rather than a text message. I even received an actual letter a few months ago… the kind that come in an envelope with a stamp. It was quite meaningful. So, once our social networking starts the conversation, (they’re powerful tools for that), it’s sometimes good to revert to old fashioned ways of moving things along.
One of my favorite authors has over 220,000 people following his Twitter page. He follows only 34. Social networking, you see, could make it easy for this man to put himself at the center of the universe. He’s not there. The people who buy his books are, and if he forgets that he’s in trouble from a marketing perspective.
Social media is amazing, fun, and very effective. If you’re not using it, we’d love to help you start. The approach we take, however, might be different from some folks, because we think it has to be just one more way to make the other person supremely important.
(P.S. – There’s a mathematical and musical reason that analog vinyl albums sound better than digital CDs. Send me an e-mail, or post on our Facebook Page, or Tweet me, or text me, and I’ll call you back to explain.)
Expect great things,
Steve Fales
AdServices Inc.
steve@adservices.net
Facebook: www.adservices.net/facebook
Twitter: @SteveFales www.twitter.com/SteveFales
Twitter: @AdServicesInc www.twitter.com/AdServicesInc
Terrific article, Steve. Totally and completley “right on the mark.” Thank you for sharing.
Bob Burg on May 16, 2009