Do You Broadcast Or Engage With Customers?

A common theme on the Social Media Marketing Workshops that I deliver is that of how companies talk to their customers through Facebook, Twitter, et al. If we look back on the growth of the Internet, we will see that companies used to create web pages (many still do) in much the same way that they created their traditional marketing materials: one message, many recipients. These companies would take their offline brochures and, without considering the new medium, would drop this content directly on to their web pages. There was no consideration for how web users differed from offline users and no focus on creating short paragraphs, hypertext links, bulleted lists, related links, images, downloads, search, etc, etc, etc.

Today with Social Media I often think that these organisations are applying the same mistakes that they employ offline – broadcasting and not listening – to their blog posts, tweets and other updates. The word ‘social’ is pretty important here. Collins dictionary defines social as:

1. living or preferring to live in a community rather than alone
2. of or relating to human society or organization
3. of the way people live and work together in groups, social organization
4. of or for companionship or communal activities, social clubs

Social Media is not just another box to tick in your online marketing toolkit. It requires that you don’t just sign up for a Twitter account but also consider what you are doing there and what you are going to say.

Every day I see companies online simply broadcasting to their audience. Their blog posts are telling them about products, their Tweets are giving them offers, their updates are directing them to product demos. Admittedly, many customers purely go online to look out for bargains, promotions, etc such as those offered by the Dell Outlet. However, companies like Dell have got multiple Twitter accounts, blogs and Facebook pages all of which have different levels of engagement and interaction with their target audience.

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Replicating your direct mail, TV, radio and print ads online is not the best approach to winning over both customers and prospective ones on the Internet. Web communication has changed a great deal over the years, from One-to-Many to One-to-One and now Many-to-Many. And so, companies must bear this in mind when utilising the myriad of Social Media apps available to them. They have to know when they should engage but also when it is OK to broadcast.