Hello. Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anybody home?
If that’s a consumer asking the question they might have to wait a while for a reply at least according to a recent Alterian survey of marketers Are You Ready To Engage? Amazingly, barely 1/3rd of companies surveyed indicated they intend to listen to consumers by investing in social media monitoring in 2010 (see below). The same survey also reported that 66% of marketers intend to invest in some sort of social media engagement activity in 2010.
In which new marketing techniques are you investing or plan to invest?
Isn’t that great? Well no, not really. As my old dad used to say lovingly to me when I was a brash, eager youth. “You need to shut up and listen a bit more. How do you know what to say if you don’t listen”? Well I did listen (a bit) because I’m now a firm advocate of the critical importance of an enterprise-level approach to social media monitoring designed to educate and inform all areas of a business that touch a customer or consumer.
Unfortunately spending money in social but not investing in monitoring smacks of yet more marketing money chasing the bright shiny mirage of creating ‘cool’ ‘experiences’ on the web designed to win undying love among unsuspecting and largely uninterested consumers. Those ad agency guys are sure good at making persuasive presentations. Shame they’re wrong so often.
This isn’t rocket science. How can a company design competitive customer experiences without understanding the customer? How can they expect to serve consumer needs unless they understand the context and challenges in their consumers’ daily lives?
How can they engage in social media activity without knowing a) where their customers are online b) what they care about c) the language they use to describe things d) what they’re trying to get done? Somehow the 30-odd percent of companies who will be spending money in social media in 2010 without investing in monitoring expect to be able to do just that. Good luck!