Social Media Changes Business Forever
I attended a very education webinar today, put on by Xeequa. I found it to be very helpful. Axel Shultze, CEO, convincingly explained and showed how consumers have become increasingly resistant to traditional forms of advertising . For us as Internet Marketers we have to learn from this as well, that we can’t any longer ‘hope’ that we attract customers with something they are rejecting in the marketplace.
(Thanks again Axel for your outstanding efforts in the area! When I grow up I want to be just like you.)
Today, all of us are getting educated through the Internet, actually the “Social Web” (whether people call it that or not), by reading blogs and IM from our mobile devices, checking our social networks, join forums, participate in groups and virtual communities and listen to the opinions and read the reviews of people we trust. An astonishingly increasing number of product or brand decisions are pretty much made before a sales process even starts, almost entirely before someone would enter a physical store or company. We all have done our research well before that time using our Social contacts via the web and what SM tools we have grown to rely on.
This is serious business. Times are changing and corporate America knows it. Many large companies, like Adobe, are already creating Social communities internally inside their own company and externally to interface with their customers and really listen to them. They have a whole team of Social Media experts on staff who are monitoring and measuring this to help position themselves as a company. IBM, has also aggressively implemented a Social Media strategy that is funneling ‘juice’ through all their communities all back into their core business very effectively.
Soon, rather than later, there will be a booming demand for Social Media experts, not to provide some ’strategy’ or create Twitter and Facebook accounts, but for experts to help the company put a plan into action. Openness is becoming more important than confidentiality, networking and collaborating across company boundaries became an important topic in corporate board rooms. The new enterprises demands customer interaction their way, not the companies. This may be hard for some companies to swallow, but eventually, they will have to open and say “Ahhh!” or else.
Check out this great video Xeequa put together that makes the point that the shift in consumer control isn’t happening, it has already happened! Social communities are already functioning in ways all major companies have already sat up and taken notice of their effectiveness. (i.e., Facebook now has over 150 million members, that is more than Japan or Russia!)
As Social Media develops rapidly before us, two principles are already crystal clear. 1) TRUST, this is the key to long lasting community strategies and building a sustainable, effective, and profitable Social Media implementation. 2) RELATIONSHIPS, not selling, which takes a lot of effort, resources, a comprehensive knowledge of how these SM tools work together, and a solid plan. Most of these things, companies don’t have time for or don’t want to deal with. Many, again like IBM, are realizing this stream of social interaction is the only thing that is going to keep them in business so they vigorously getting involved!
That’s where we come in.
Are you ready?
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