Recently I was on a panel of “The Future of Marketing.” I spoke on the importance of:
- Analyzing your customer data to identify business opportunities
- Empowering employees to use social media for relationship building
- Differentiation by providing customer value with a focus on customer experience
Human + Scaling Social
Two main themes came through in the seminar:
- A recognition that companies and employees of companies need to connect to consumers on a personal, human level
- A desire to scale social interactions through Marketing technology
I agree with the nature of these two trends and they should go together nicely. The problem lies with how many companies might implement their social business. And this isn’t the rant of a purist. Plenty of people are concerned about “The Dangers of Marketing Automation“
Back to the seminar I was in… a room full of Marketers, nearly no one was using the hashtag for the event. Approximately half of those in attendance signified (via show of hands) that they use Twitter, yet the event hashtag had less than 10% audience participation. The only participants were panelists. It seems Marketers want to wield social media in the same manner they use email – ready, aim, BLAST!
Social Marketing is not Email Marketing
What’s troubling is Marketers want to transfer their email marketing skills to social. You can’t just ‘mail merge in’ the recipients twitter name and blast tweets out.
Notice
Run an automated DM campaign and I’m pulling your Marketing card. You can sit social out.
