In addition, I have observed the number of books covering the topic of social media, social media strategy, marketing to the social web, twitter marketing, etc. has increased dramatically. Everybody is a self-proclaimed expert and they all say about the same thing:
Your Business Needs to be More Social.
Why? I think it goes back over 50 years ago to Peter Drucker. "The purpose of a business is to create a customer." Therefore, three questions come to mind we should ask before launching a social media strategy. First: Who are our customers? Second: Where are our customers? Third: What is the most valuable way to our customers for us to reach them?
Is it just me or do many businesses tend to skip the first two questions and jump straight to the third? And do we see the answer to the third question only in terms of the technology we can use?
I agree that many businesses should be more social. But the tools of the social web -- we should remember -- are valuable only as long as our customers consider them valuable. And our use of the tools are only valuable to our customers if we provide something they truly value.
This is why we should start with the first question: Who are our customers? Only then can we use the technology as an accelerator (Collins, Good to Great) to benefit both our customers and our business. The tools have changed, but the focus is still the same and it, too, involves a question. This one is directed to our customers and is as timeless as business itself:
How May I Serve You?
After the first question -- Who are our customers? -- perhaps this is next best question to ask because our customers will tell us what are next move ought to be. They will tell us how social we need to be.
That makes sense. You have some good thoughts there. Keep applying steam.
Posted by: Chaska | February 07, 2010 at 08:45 PM