Earlier this week, HubSpot introduced a new product called Social Inbox, which integrates social monitoring & content publishing with a marketer's Hubspot contact database. The concept is something that has been long desired by marketers, enabling them to replace the broader interruptive social marketing activities with a more 1-to-1 approach designed to develop individual relationships, through social channels, with partners, prospects and customers.
This is of particular personal interest to me as it's a concept featured within my book Stand Out Social Marketing. Conceptually, it will allow marketers to hypertarget conversations and activities through the social web, without getting lost in the noise and clutter of social, and aligning activities with a definitive ROI. As part of Hubspot's promotion around the new offering they published the infographic (below) which illustrates how social media - specifically for marketers - has lost its way.
Hubspot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah said in a press release, "When social media first began, we all felt a rush of excitement, because we had new and unique channels to interact with the people most important to us. Over the last five years, social media has lost its way: companies have lost sight of the "social" element and instead have focused on networks as media channels through which to broadcast mass communication. Social Inbox emphasizes people over posts, humans over handles, outcomes over activity, and ultimately, makes social media personal again, which is a win for marketers and consumers alike."
I completely agree with Darmesh and can't wait to see Hubspot's Social Inbox in action.