If you’ve heard all the hype about social media, chances are it either makes your spine tingle or your teeth grind. But don’t let the buzz distract you from the real market drivers. Word-of-mouth has always been an important marketing influence—new technology just opens up new channels for customers to communicate, making word-of-mouth more accessible and more pervasive.
While pundits argue about the meaning of “social media,” you have a challenge to address today. Your customers are increasingly tuning out marketing and PR spin, and tuning in to peer discussions and communities. Your carefully crafted value proposition or thought leadership platform is just one more data point—or worse, it’s red meat for the wolves.
Don’t be fooled into thinking this trend is just about technology—that it’s about blogs and wikis and mashups and forums. Technology is catalyzing a new relationship between businesses and customers. With more information and more choice, consumers have more leverage—and more expectations. Fluffy marketing wrapped around a poor product won’t cut it when competitors are engaging customers and inviting them to participate in product development and marketing.
In a very real sense, businesses need to recast themselves as members of their market community. And that’s what MotiveLab is all about. We’re a marketing services group dedicated not to the buzzwords that inflate Social Media, but to helping our clients navigate the changing realities and implications that call for Social Leadership.