Is being "social" a marketing strategy?
Tracy Borreson
History tells us we can't "belong" unless we're the SAME. But what if we could create Togetherness based on our uniqueness instead?
I've done a LOT of marketing work in the past. All kinds:
You name it, I've probably done it.
All of these are things we DO as marketers. And honestly, usually the goals are focused on the AMOUNT of these things we do. How many posts? How many ads? How many blog posts? How many business cards collected?
WHO we are being when we do these activities very rarely gets talked about. So, that's what we're going to talk about today.
Specifically, how being "social" plays into the marketing TASKS we do; whether they are assigned to you by your manager, or whether you assign them to yourself as an entrepreneur.
Being Social
What does it mean to be social? Here's the interesting thing...it looks a little bit different for everyone. It's not about everyone in your business being an extrovert and bringing back 100 business cards. It's about creating space for your most influential people to share, socially, what you do and why you do it. It's about people using THEIR personal brand to create relationships with people, and using those relationships as your marketing foundation.
Hmm...marketing foundation. Sure sounds like a strategy to me ??
Finding YOUR Social
So, if being social is all about creating connections with people, we first need to understand what it looks like for each of our people to create connections.
For example, someone who identifies as an introvert has a different way of connecting with people than an extrovert. And introversion and extroversion also happen on a scale of VERT-ness, which means no two extroverts are the same either.
In order to find what being social looks like for each person, there needs to be freedom to explore. Freedom to express. And freedom to fail. Now we're moved into a culture conversation.
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If your current work culture - whether you're a corporation or an entrepreneur - doesn't support exploration, expression and acceptance of failure, your ability to empower employees (or yourself) to be social, in essence disappears.
Being social, by nature, is not static. The way we show up one day might look different than another day. And it takes experimentation to learn what feels right and what feels wrong for each team member. If your corporate culture can embrace this, you begin to empower your employees to show up however looks social for them ??
Being Social as a Marketing Strategy
Whether you're a solopreneur, a start up or an established business, I encourage you to explore your current marketing strategy. How much are you showing up just to DO tasks?
Marketing is all about creating a connection. That's what makes sales possible.
If we have 100 pieces of content that aren't connecting with people-that people don't remember-what good is all that time we spend creating it? And it is really setting our salespeople up for success?
That's a hard NO.
But when we can empower our people to tell the story about who we are as a business, and they create connections with other humans that allow an ever-growing list of people to REMEMBER us...
Well folks, that's the gold ??
And THAT'S why focusing your marketing (and sales) strategies on BEING social, will help you win every time.
Final Thoughts
People remember people.
So I'll leave you with this...how social are you being with your marketing activities?
Digital Commercial Strategist - Developing people and organisations to become leaders in their sectors - TedX Speaker - Keynote speaker, event host/compere/moderator - Artist
2 年Thanks Tracy, great peice. It’s the ‘being social’ part of strategic b2b social media that is widening the digital divide. We can connect and grow meaningful relationships with people, we can’t do that with faceless brochureware.