Part I: A New Way to Reach Consumers

Over the past decade, we have had to drastically change the way we reach consumers. We have also had to change the way we think of "change". Moving away from the negative connotation, we need to embrace it because change is at the heart of what will bring us closer to our customers.

Traditionally, marketing has focused on pushing information out to the public. With the ever-increasing amount of distractions and the decreasing amount of time everyone has, this approach is no longer feasible. Marketers need to focus on engaging consumers through two-way communication and interaction.

There are various social marketing tools available that make this new form of marketing possible and successful. These tools bring us closer to consumers, so we can better understand their needs. With this kind of high-value feedback, we can redefine our products and services to meet the ever-changing demands of our customers, while getting to know them better at the same time. I would argue this kind of opportunity is invaluable to any company, the only cost is time.

How much time? Marketing Departments need to recreate and redesign their own strategies in order to integrate social media marketing into their every day activities. The amount of time and personnel needed will vary from company to company, industry to industry. But the important thing is that it is happening, rather than not at all.

So, I encourage you to start a company twitter account, join groups relevant to your industry on linkedin, create a facebook page, start a blog, reach out. Generally, the amount of resources you invest in it will reflect the value you receive back in the end.


The above post is Part I of a IV part series highlighting the importance of social media marketing. Later parts will delve deeper into certain strategies to help develop and build on the expertise of marketers in order to increase the value-added to their efforts.