Many marketers view social media marketing as (merely) a way to do marketing using social media tools. Consequently most social media marketing programs in the near future will be just that - marketing programs. They will have little in common with the passionate user communities and consumer movements that truly visionary companies will be able to leverage to transform their entire customer-facing processes - from marketing to customer service and new product innovation.
Those that get beyond this social media myopia and realize that the power of social media marketing comes from putting the social in marketing will achieve results that far surpass those of their colleagues.
So let's take a look at what social media marketing activity we are likely to encounter in the near future and how these initiatives might evolve in the future. (Of course, you do not have to wait for the future - you can go there directly, right now.)
What social media marketing activity are we likely to encounter in the short term? |
What social media marketing activity should we see in the future? |
Social media "listening" campaigns to track the chatter and to identify key influencers | Social media "sensing" and "engaging" campaigns to go beyond listening, and analyzing what is being said, to understanding what is being meant and making that information actionable, both internally and externally. |
YouTube/FaceBook-based incentivized marketing contests around specific brands or products | Sponsored YouTube channels or FaceBook groups and pages centered around fan clubs, causes and shared passions |
Corporate blogs that are A) not distinguished from the rest of the corporate web site and B) controlled by the messaging/branding police | Editorially independent thought leadership blogs on the industry in which the company operates, a topic about which its customers care passionately or around advocacy related to the company's markets |
Company-centric or product-centric virtual communities | Virtual communities centered around the users and their shared passions or causes |
Company-specific industry-based virtual communities (e.g., small business community) |
Industry focused communities which are sponsored by multiple vendors |
Product innovation or market insight focused communities that are nothing more than sophisticated online suggestion boxes | Product innovation and market insight-focused communities that leverage the social, i.e. to enable true co-innovation with customers, prospects and detractors |
Social media-based customer service initiatives that are nothing more than online Q&A systems or bulletin boards | Social media-based customer service initiatives that truly leverage the reciprocity reflex that makes us humans hypersocial - i.e., the desire to help and be helped |
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