Social Marketing Revolution

Social Media Is Conversation Not Lectures

Social Media is PULL marketing. Pull marketing needs time to establish a relationship. Time to talk and be heard. That's why my favorite social media marketing mistake is #1 -on Forbes list of five common social mistakes - not listening to your audience. 

Digital Listening Is Different
Digital listening is different than listening to someone while having a conversation. Digital listening requires social rewards, examples, and a clear ask. Creating a clear ask, defining what you want to happen and why strays into Forbes second mistake - no clear objectives. 

Confusion = Don't Buy, Engage, Contribute

Without objective confusion rules. If you don't know why you're doing, saying, or asking something how can the digital receiver possibly know? Confused customers do many things buying is never one of them. 

Confusion Is Easy, Clarity Hard
During an almost twenty year career as a digital marketer, I built my first e-commerce website in 1999, clarity is the easiest sin. Think your marketing, motives, and campaigns are clear as a ringing bell on a cold morning in the Himalayas? Think again.

Don't Talk To Yourself About Yourself

All digital marketing is in danger of 1. talking to itself about itself and 2. not listening. Listening isn't easy. Listening is at least twice as hard as talking and digital listening is at least twice as hard as real-life listening or conversational listening where nonverbal clues can help bring you back around can help stop our tendency to talk to ourselves about ourselves. 

Favorite Digital Listening Tactics

Here are a few digital listening tactics we recommend:

• Social Rewards - Features and social media shares of user-generated content is a great way to show you listen. 
• Loyalty Programs - Points, badges, and other social honors work when the rules are clear, the game fair, and rewards meaningful (social reward is more lasting than material).
• Responses - Responding to blog comments, blogging about great questions and sharing on social media values the comment, review, or question. 
• Profiles - Their content on your site is our favorite "listening" tactic because having users create content encourages shares and reduces your content creation burden/need. 

Those are our initial pre-coffee reactions. More at Curagami.com soon.