Who uses Social Media Marketing to sell?

Just read a post over at socialmediatoday, which asks if Social Media conversations sell anything.

I tend to agree with Mark Schaefer, that many so-called conversations taking place in social networks today aren’t conversations at all, but more of a type of voting. People ‘like’, share and Tweet about content they like – very few tend to contribute their own thoughts and comments. And yes, it’s true – the ultimate aim of a company that starts marketing through Social Media channels is to sell their services more. It’s a given that customers, or viewers that enable ad-driven revenue make the social media marketing world go round.

But I completely disagree with the statement that marketers exist to sell more stuff to more people for more money. Marketers exist to give the company knowledge, and, as Sir Francis Bacon put it, knowledge is power. We are here to understand what the customer really needs (which is not always the same as what he thinks he wants) and to make sure our company designs the product, or improves the service, and give the customer the best possible option in the market. We are NOT here to convince users to buy something they don’t need, or push a brand that we don’t believe in.

Through social media marketing, we can learn that developers would love to learn Lean, but they can’t reach the conferences, or book the speakers themselves. It could be for lack of funds, time, or upper management saying no, and it is manifested as complaints that the speakers cost too much, or the conferences are too far away. The solution, by the way, is to upload videos of the presentations at the conferences, or give an e-learning option, or…. you get the idea. Through the comments we get on our services, products or tools, we can learn what the users liked and what needs to be improved. We answer their feedback immediately, showing them we are actually listening, increasing the brand reputation, and making sure more people hear about us in social networks. And more people = more visits to the site, and more conversions into leads. And leads for your sales people will generate more money for the company.

I’m not saying everything should be decided via public opinion – the latest Gap logo debacle, for example, shows how a company can be bullied into losing millions of dollars (think of the time spent in design meetings, the money paid to the design company, etc.), just because some people are more resistant to change. My guess, by the way, is that the whole thing would have blown over in two weeks, which is the average Internet meme lifespan.

In spite of that, Social Media channels are still the best source of information for companies to understand what their potential customers need, and what the companies need to improve to get more business. And that’s where we come in.

image by bigevil600 from stock.xching