Adding that to my favorite quotes!too

Customers are able to provide feedback directly – which is great because you know in an instant whether you’re on the right track or not with regards to your product, marketing or service.

Once again though, I cannot help but feel that the term social media is exactly that, social (although it’s an all-encompassing term which includes a diverse range of web 2.0 application, websites and such).

If you walk up to a bunch of folks in a bar and start handing out business cards without introducing yourself, most of those cards are going to get binned or used as roaches in the end of joints.

However, if you engage them and are entertaining, able to make interesting, insightful and constructive input before dishing out cards you have a greater chance of those cards making into their wallets, drawers, filofaxes or wherever they keep stuff…. If you do really well, they will ask you your name and actively seek out more information, maybe even REQUEST your business card.

That said, it boils down to intention; do you want to start a conversation, distribute content, understand a demographic, get a feel for a market or just simply use social media as another spamming tool. Social media can be anything you want it to be; a link building tool (Digg, StumbleUpon etc), a free focus group (facebook) or even a content distribution network (feedburner, digg, delicious, sk*rt, youtube, flickr) or simply a way to let people know what’s happening (blogging, twitter etc) or even a brand building medium is you use any of the aforementioned sites in combination. And this does not even begin to speak about the SEO benefits that can be gained by using social media as a way to generate links through your content distribution network or boost pages which are struggling to get indexed.

The decision have to be made prior to entering the social media space what it is that needs to be accomplished, that way with a clearly defined purpose, you can more accurately pick a medium which is better suited to achieving your goals.

I must admit, though, that said that it’s a pretty big space and is still quite new to me, but I am leaning quickly that honesty, transparency and sincerity will stand you in good stead in the long run, which ever social media channel you wish to go swimming.

Social Media turns the tables round. Most companies don’t want to change their business unless they absolutely must, let alone for their customers. I think that these days you simply can’t ignore it, people will talk whether you like it or not, and the web gives their messages exponential reach. The first thing when I want to evaluate a product is type the name and brand into Google followed by the word “sucks” or “sux”. To me at least, negative comments seem to amplify much easier than positive ones. I can’t think of any real way for any snake oil can counter this. In my opinion this is the first problem.

I believe that the best social marketers are experts at facilitating customer feedback in a semi-controlled environment, whether it is negative or positive. This way they can generate some positive feedback just by participating. They get a better feel for what the customers like and don’t like and this should be channeled back into product development. Therefore social marketers should have much more input into the direction of products and customer service. They are the eyes and ears of the company. The role of the marketer becomes more important, and to be most effective, they need buy-in from the highest level. However this is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. That is the second problem I see with social media marketing – it requires huge cultural change.

You are right that at least on the web, consumers create the demand and buzz, not social marketers. With the web, consumers have amplified choice. It would be great to think that companies really had choice. Unfortunately, in a more competitive marketplace, businesses have little choice because profitability only comes by amplifying the demand for your products. Too many still consider consumers to be dumb, but long before sports stars started endorsing breakfast cereals people could still weed out the fake from the sincere – even if they still ended up buying your product. People are naturally skeptical of positive comments, but take negative comments seriously. The web is making consumers smarter, today they can make informed choices. In today’s market, it is no longer possible to sell a product with one or two testimonials. If a company drops the ball, it faces a mass exodus to its competitors. Social media marketing is actually becoming necessary but it has to be done right. It is about weight of numbers and it will bring some honesty, ethics and accountability back to doing business.

There is a misconception that you can succeed only relying on social media marketing when SMM should encompass every other aspect of your marketing and advertising campaign. As for acquiring new users, for the most part it is not you broadcasting to acquire new users but the existing users who became a user firstly by a positive experience that are rebroadcasting their positive testimonials and feedback. Once I acquire new users my goal then is to maintain a relationship and build trust. I consider my network a pool of opportunity. Who is this person? Where are they from? What is their profession? How old are they? How can we help each other? Do I have news that they should know about that is specific to them? Have I met this person or already know them through a connection with someone else? Who was it that referred them in my direction? Are they an influence in their group of peers and colleagues? Opinion leader? What are they blogging about? What do they find funny? A list of questions enters my mind when engaging a new user. It’s like any other social interaction for me. I want users to feel like a part of the success not just a person to be marketed to.

Thanks
Adam

Thanks!
Santosh