It’s truly fantastic that so many companies are starting to monitor the social media conversations around their brands and their industry at large. But what’s not fantastic is the reflexive apoplexy when some of those conversations inexorably are less than complementary. I have seen corporate marketers (and even PR firm folks who should know better) get downright bitter and sullen when they find a negative blog post or tweet.
Yes, I know that negativity in social media can have a ripple in the pond effect – it’s word of mouth on steroids. But try to keep some perspective. Most companies would love to have their products rated a “4″ on a 5 point scale, right? But that means that 20% off your customers think you have room for improvement.
(if you’re into that kind of ratings/reviews stuff, you might enjoy this post on the psychology of scales – it’s an oldie but a goodie here on C&C)
You know how many people are calling or emailing your customer service department every day with complaints? Probably a lot more than those writing surly blog posts, reviews, or tweets.
Peek A Boo
Historically, marketing has been largely insulated for the customer experience. As Josh Bernoff of Groundswell fame so brilliantly put it:
“The people in charge of talking are in the marketing department. The people in charge of listening are in the research or service or sales department.”
To me, what’s transformative about social media is that it forces marketers to confront the customer experience head-on. If customers have problems, they’ll be uncovered by marketing via social media monitoring and engagement, and by customer service via phone and email and in-person.
In a real-time, social media world, marketing has to react immediately to the successes and shortcomings of operations, product development, legal, finance, customer support, and the idiosyncracies of company personnel (see the Whole Foods CEO imbroglio).
Marketing’s Growing Role
As a marketer, if your job is now going to at least partially be about dealing with wake created by the rest of your company, shouldn’t you be communicating with and talking to those folks on a much more frequent and comprehensive basis than has historically been the case?
If everything now manifests itself in marketing and social media, shouldn’t you not only have a seat at the communications table, but at every table? While the impact of traditional, unidirectional tactics like advertising may wane, does this new confluence of marketing and operations actually herald an era of newfound importance and organizational power for marketers?
Let’s hope so, because when every day could be your “United Breaks Guitars” it’s never been tougher to be a great marketer.
Social Media makes everything marketing, customer service, communications, PR, etc. This space has certainly expanded our roles as marketers but has also helped us evolve into better communicators, better equipped to solve customer related issues, and understand internal processes – from finance to sales – a lot better.
Social Media has helped integrate so many parts of the business into our roles that companies are starting to expect these additional skill-sets from future SM-focused employees and expect them to know now, more than ever, how to take that wide-scoped social media understanding and integrate it internally and within the digital space.
.-= Sonny Gill´s last blog ..Tell me one thing… =-.
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing from @jaybaer [link to post] – 2 words you don’t see often in blog posts – reflexive apoplexy
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Great read! RT @BeckermanPR > Social Media Makes Everything #Marketing | Convince & Convert [link to post] #socialmedia
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Convince & Convert [link to post] #socialmedia #marketing
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Great read RT @MetroStarSystem Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Convince & Convert [link to post] #socialmedia #marketing
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RT @tweetmeme Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – C… [link to post]
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RT @kristen_okla: Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Convince & Convert [link to post]
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@jaybaer Blog: Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [link to post]
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RT @rlseymann: @jaybaer Blog: Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [link to post]
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Too true! RT @tweetmeme Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [link to post]
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Convince & Convert [link to post]
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great post by @jaybaer on social media and marketing’s new role in organizations http://ow.ly/sX6q
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [link to post] (via @Kristen_Okla)
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and … [link to post]
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RT @Toby_Metcalf @jaybaer Why social media makes everything marketing. Excellent article. – [link to post]
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Jay – i wish you were more right.
According to the “Social Media Survey” conducted by PRWeek and communications agency MS&L, almost 70% of marketers say they have never made a change to their products or marketing campaigns based on consumer feedback on social media sites. In addition, 43% said lack of knowledge and expertise prevents them from using social media in their marketing programs, and 39% said they are not convinced of its value or ROI.
So wrote Christopher Hosford in his B2B article yesterday, and I am sadly not surprised. Marketers too often see their job as externally facing. They rarely have the role to “Convince and Convert” inside their organizations for product, service delivery, or other changes that are needed based on customer feedback. It’s too bad too, since Marketers are so good at talking – they should use it more often to lead their companies to positive improvements.
.-= Anne Marsden´s last blog ..Google SideWiki. Brand Managers Beware… =-.
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Social Media Makes Everything Marketing Convince and Convert… [link to post]
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RT @tweetmeme Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [link to post] > Forces marketing to confront customer experience
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You are right about social media forcing some marketers to communicate in more innovative ways with their customers.
For me there has always been an element of social media at work within the many teams of front line customer service staff who have been listening to customers for many years.
I guess adoption of social media tools permeates different geographic areas at different speeds. In the UK it is still only adopted by the minority of forward thinking companies and still disregarded by many.
.-= Phil Dunseath´s last blog ..SEO Services =-.
Social Media Makes Everything Marketing >> great blog post http://twurl.nl/6r0qhs
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Everything Marketing is Social Media. [link to post]
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RT @randylewiskemp Article: “Social Media Makes Everything Marketing” [link to post]
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Article: “Social Media Makes Everything Marketing” [link to post]
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[...] Social Media Makes Everything Marketing [...]
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Jay,
Not only does social media make everything marketing, it also makes everyone in the organization a marketer and a customer service.
With so many channels for customers to communicate (the good, the bad, and the ugly) with us, everyone needs to be listening. If not, before long, the company’s brand will have no value and its customer’s will have no loyalty.
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RT @tweetmeme Confronting the customer experience… | Convince&Convert Jay Baer [link to post]
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@JamesRyanJ Social Media Makes Everything Marketing… [link to post]
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Great Read: #SocialMedia Makes Everything #Marketing by @jaybaer http://ow.ly/tSzD
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RT @Synthesio: Social media makes everything marketing by @jaybaer [link to post] <
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Social media makes everything marketing by @jaybaer [link to post] <
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the guys @Muss&Turners know a marketing secret – and we’re all better off because…[link to post]
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Social media makes everything marketing by @jaybaer http://bit.ly/dEecf <<Every online interaction counts
RT @Synthesio: Social media makes everything marketing by @jaybaer http://bit.ly/dEecf <<Every online interaction counts
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RT @jaybaer Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – http://bit.ly/10f0hH
Social Media Makes Everything Marketing http://icio.us/t4bxfc
Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert http://bit.ly/170UtA
Social networking sites are sooo bombarded with internet marketers already. It’s even harder to differentiate who is who. Social media turned market media.
“Social media turned market media.” this seems to me like the sad truth! Just take a look at Twitter for example and count the “Promo Tweets” on the first side! I bet you find 7 out of ten (depending on who you follow, of course)! This makes Social Media Marketing more and more ineffective, I think!
Great Post!
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RT @jaybaer Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – Con… [link to post]
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RT @jaybaer Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | Integrated Marketing and Media | Social Media Consulting – Con… http://bit.ly/10f0hH
[...] The real-time Web makes everything marketing’s responsibility. It used to be that if you had a problem with a hotel, you’d call the front desk. Or if you really had an issue, you’d call the 800 number, or write a letter and your concerns would be addressed by the hotel’s operations or customer service department. [...]
RT @jaybaer Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | http://bit.ly/10f0hH
Social Media Makes Everything Marketing | http://bit.ly/10f0hH RT @ResumeBear via @jaybaer
[...] The real-time Web makes everything marketing’s responsibility. It used to be that if you had a problem with a hotel, you’d call the front desk. Or if you really had an issue, you’d call the 800 number, or write a letter and your concerns would be addressed by the hotel’s operations or customer service department. [...]
I think a major point is this: marketing is not a separate entity from any other part of your organization. Social media highlights this, but it isn't relevant *just* to social media.
Everyone's a leader, and everyone's a marketer. Everyone has to understand, embody, and convey the organization's core values – ie, what your brand stands for. Social media is just one way to receive feedback on how well we're doing that.
I used to work for a company that expected marketing to work independently of anything customer-related … [there were even layers of bureaucracy between internal customers and marketers] … yet we were developing customer-facing materials. Independent of any management directives, we marketers had to blaze our own trails to make connections with customer service, call center, etc. I've since left the company and I don't know whether those trails have endured, but the learning isn't just about marketing; it's also about management.
Why put up divisions that dissuade us from learning about our customers, and how they perceive our company (brand)? If we choose to ignore our customers in social media or call centers or any other legitimate platform, our business deserves to suffer for it. And that's just shame.
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