Amplifying Human Desire with Social Media

What do all marketers strive for when creating a campaign? Is it a creative ad? Of course. Is it a funny jingle? Sometimes. Is it a memorable moment? They try.

Overall all else… marketers live and breathe for the opportunity to create a campaign that will move people.  It is moving you to action through the drive of emotion… We all try to reach that point of peaking human desire.

Meeting with clients and potential clients today I was moved by their desire and pure drive for their companies to succeed. They were thrilled with the concept of creating a campaign that drove the base of human emotion.. something that thrilled to the point of action.

Social media brings a new platform that encourages the pursuit of that emotional campaign. In all honesty it IS THE PLATFORM to create this thrill.

There is no other medium on earth that allows for the human connection quite like social media. You can drive evangelists of your product to bring others to your door in a fraction of a second.You can encourage individuals all over the world to communicate and help… make.. your service or product better.

How are you encouraging communication between current and potential clients? Isn’t it about time to start?

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Social Media Marketing to Increase by 48%

Thanks to Chris Baggott at Compendium Blogware for pushing this data at me. I have seen the graph before but not the updated version. Chris’ post talks about the merit of SEO and email marketing being at the forefront of the increases in online marketing budgets over the next year… I wanted to focus on the third one..

Social media marketing.

It is encouraging to see social media marketing and SEO sliding into the top three spots in the online marketing budgets of companies all over the world. It shows that businesses owners from all over the world are taking a closer look at sites like Twitter and organic search engine optimization in the form of blogging (guessing there).

What does this mean to the business owner?

In my opinion, you should follow the trend or get left in the dust.

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Selling the Hawaiian Breeze

Today’s Guest Post is by Jeff Timpanaro, President of Oberata Consulting. Oberatat Consulting exists to bring businesses into operational, financial, and relational alignment. We do this by providing strategic leverage through relationships, training, and the strength of the Total Integration™ Program.

HOW’S YOUR TONE?

“Your sales pitch should be given in the same tone as you would tell someone about your vacation to Hawaii.“ -Blain Wease, Founder, Provincial Development Group.

Typical sales speak is coercive, and seeks for the right verbal equation to nab you. It makes us feel needy when we’re not, unhip when it doesn’t matter, and irrelevant unless we make the purchase.

Is that how your prospects perceive you? What tone does your ad copy put forth? You may have this down pat; if so, stop reading and click NEXT.

But you may want to consider a review of your tone, especially in your ad copy and web copy. Why? Because these are both “decontextualized” media. There’s no voice inflection, and no obvious tone to convey your message. That’s why you’ve got to be so polite as to almost be ridiculous. The reason is because people (buyers) want security in their purchase.

“People may forget what you said, and they may forget what you do, but they will never forget how they made you feel.” – Carl Buechner

It’s all in how you make them feel. If you were telling someone about your awesome vacation to Hawaii, would there be one ounce of threat? Are you hard selling for the Hawaii Board of Tourism? No, Hawaii has nothing to gain from your account to your friends. All you are saying – with 100% knowledge and confidence – is, “Man, if you go to Hawaii, you are going to LOVE it.”

In my view, this is the ideal communication of your value in exchange for cash, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s because there will always be two things on earth: (1) value, and (2) people willing to pay for it. The way you bring those two together is by trust!

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The Key to Selling is Imagination

Shama Hyder is a brilliant Gen Y blogger who has a video blog talking about all things social media and marketing. She has a video (which you see below) that talks about the importance of using your skills to help a potential client “imagine” the possibilities of working with you or your company. Brilliant stuff. Thanks Shama!

It is important to remember that imagination should be used in every aspect of your business. After all, we are all trying to tell a story to another individual. Marketing is storytelling and imagination is very much involved.

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The Strange World of Social Media

The majority of us are strangers right? I mean… we talk on a regular basis and exhange links but there are few that you can actual call “trusted friends.” And yet we love what we do. 

I love getting up in the morning and having multiple conversations with people all over the world. I love sharing content with enlightened minds just trying to understand concepts of design, marketing, social media, the Internet, and life. 

The majority of us are strangers but we share a common bond: interest. There is a common thread that ties all of us together: the social web. Our interests keep us coming back and keep us in the loop.

When marketing and creating relationships with customers over the web it is important to remember this… the killer of all.

Your customers want to relate to you and in the strange world of social media it has become easier to relate, share, and communicate. 

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Social Media is Viable. Like it Or Not.

(this post is sparked from Jason Falls post on social media sustainability. Found here.)

When does a communication reach the point of being viable.. sustainable… business driven? If we look at some of the other mediums (radio and tv) you could say that the peak came when it was adopted by people as a worthy form of either entertainment or communication.

Social media is no different.

We can think of social media as a tool, a communication platform, or simply.. another bright, shiny object… but the truth remains that when millions upon millions of people adopt it as a form of communication..

The viability and sustainability of the medium becomes a reality..it has the potential to grow, to prosper, and to live.

We will continue to have years of grueling death matches between the business world and social media (the same thing happened with radio and tv). This is a fact. It is very apparent to me that people have a hard time adapting and changing when faced with a new thing… a paradigm shift.

The truth is going to be in how you adapted. How did you take your employees… your product… your company… and evolved to fit the changing landscape of customer communication on the web?

How are you going to use this new medium to drive business? Your customers are using it… isn’t it about time for you to step in?

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Number One Rule for Realtors Using Facebook

I stumbled across this video today (via Ribeezie) from CyberHomes. It is a simple (shockingly simple) video that describes the number one rule for realtors using Facebook.

Do not lead with advertising. Get to the heart of the individual. Let them know that you care about what they think. They could care less about a home offer, or a discount, or a new showing. They care about the person behind the message. Period.

Is Email Marketing Better than Social Media?

I was thrown into a conversation through the Understanding Marketing blog surrounding the concept of email marketing being better than social media… or vice versa.

I tend to agree with the editor over at Understanding Marketing when they say:

“So there’s a big conversation on which one is better. Here’s what I say – Who cares!? They both serve your audiences in their own way.”

I couldn’t agree more. There shouldn’t even be an argument over which medium is better. You should be using both mediums to develop your marketing strategy. Email has been successful over the years to drive valued buyers to a landing page, website, or phone. Social Media is used to build a brand, tell a story, and start a conversation.

They are two different mediums.. two different uses.. two different outcomes. If you are wanting an idea about how to combine the two mediums… Here is something to chew on:

1. Social Media is available to start building brand awareness around a specific product or service. It is also there to truly empower your employees and clients to talk about your company.

2. Email is the second tier of communication. Once a potential client buys into your conversation through social media.. Email can be there to deliver relevant and sales material to push the sales across.

These are just two uses for the HUGE mediums of email and social media. How do you combine both strategies?

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Business Is Always About Connecting

I was reading a post over at SmartBlog on Social Media and it had a quote by the Mzinga CEO Barry Libert:

“GM never thought of themselves of being in the business of connecting people, which is why they’re going bankrupt,”

Pretty valid thought if you ask me. Should all businesses be involved in connecting people with each other? Better yet… should businesses search for that lofty goal of connecting people who use their services to people who do not?

My opinion… Yes they should.

Business has always been about connecting. If you look back into history there has always been some type of connection between two people that created a company…

whether it was a deal that was signed or an idea sparked out of thin air.

The Internet has given way to a landslide of communication. You now have the ability to connect with every demographic on the face of the earth. What is your company doing to connect?

I am not going to sit here and say that the demise of GM was based around their inability to connect… but it is a valid point.

What are you going to do tomorrow to make it easier for customers and potential customers to connect?

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Why the Breakdown of Communication?

We are evolving.

I have probably used the word 50000 times since starting this blog. The concept of evolution is not new. As a human race we evolve on a daily basis. So why the breakdown in the evolution of communication?

Marketing departments are dying.. and it is not a slow death.

The professional marketing world is quickly flipping… churning.. burning through old thought patterns… and (hopefully) emerging on the better side of customer relationship management.

You are managing your customer relationships using communication.. you also gain customers by using marketing. We all know that every facet of your company is a marketing vehicle… from the delivery boy to the CEO.

It is important to embrace new forms of communication from the newspaper to the radio… the television to the Internet. This is no longer about “social media” this is about adapting to the changing environment.

The last question posed is this…
What happens when you don’t evolve?
You die.
What’s the next step?

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