When it comes to social media, overselling can be a drag to your fans and followers.
July is a month that pays homage to independence and breakaways from uninvited rule by others. In the U.S., July 4 gave us our freedom. France’s long sought independence from the same type of control was celebrated yesterday, July 14, Bastille Day.
It’s fittingly appropriate to discuss social media in light of France’s Independence Day. For most people, their visual interpretation of French culture is one that has an emphasis on social gatherings revolving around respect for cuisine and fine dining at a leisurely pace. Our imagery tends to be dominated by visions of people in a café, sipping espresso or wine and nibbling on something delicious while engaged in a very deep and usually passionate conversation. In essence, social media evokes this kind of mood. It’s a more languorous way to communicate with your customers, and it is quite personal.
Where the major thrusts of most web strategies revolve around generating commerce by anticipating search behavior and the resulting monetization of the consumer relationship, social media communications give companies the freedom to be friendly and not so obviously direct. That’s why companies must be very careful about being “pushy” in the province of social media; they’ll risk losing hard-earned followers.
Likewise it’s also crucial that companies respond to comments in a timely fashion. Think of the old model – someone is at the cash register with one final question before they purchase, but the clerk is elsewhere or worse yet, talking on the phone. Hard to keep the brand loyalty going if you’re not present.
Someone once likened social media to having a drink with a good friend. It’s comfortable, relaxed, unhurried. Since the majority of social media interactions occur on Facebook and Twitter, companies should plan for a balanced approach to how they interact with fans and followers.
Think of it this way. If you meet a sales professional at a networking event and they aggressively drill you for whatever sales potential your company might hold for them, they never ask you anything meaningful about YOU and then they push their business card in your palm, are you likely to ever do business with that person? But in an alternate scenario, if you meet a sales representative from that very same company because they joined a conversation you were having with a respected associate, and they listened to you, asked probing questions, and seemed honest and friendly, wouldn’t you be more likely to consider doing business with them? Social Media offers an incredibly honest way to connect with your customers and earn new brand followers by providing a voice to your brand that is genuine and authentic.
In a final French analogy, think of how the concept of the peloton functions in the Tour de France. The team riders cluster themselves into a tight bunch to save energy by riding close to one another in a technique known as drafting. The reduction in drag is dramatic.
In social media, if you want your company to earn a coveted position in a future customer’s personal peloton, it has to be an earned position. If you only use these platforms to sell and monetize, your message will ultimately become a drag.
