If you haven't done so yet, catch up on the Drama 2.0 in the comments here before proceding.
Done? Good. Now, Drama has issued the following statement about our relationship/clash of ideologies when it comes to social media, marketing, and apparently parts of Europe.
As part of a series of email exchanges, I received the following:
Your blog posts are intriguing but we disagree on
quite a few things and thus I think you may have OAS (opposites
attract syndrome). I take it you haven't read:
http://www.drama20show.com/2007/11/28/marketers-dont-be-the-nice-
guy/
I believe that most marketers still need to focus on the sell
whereas you think that most marketers need to become part of some
"conversation." We must debate this if our engagement is to ever
move ahead.
You do see the extreme urgency to debate this point--there is an engagement--2.0 style, hanging in the balance!
Ok, jokes aside, lets examine:
Alisa: Marketers must join the Conversation
Drama: Marketers must Sell
So that is the simplistic version of the two. Are they opposing? Does the "sell" work n social media? Does social media change marketing?
If marketing is attempting to engage consumers, are they not determining first the best possible way in which to do so?
Lest we forget, social media is predicated on the very well-being of the communities creating, participating, and supporting it.
Piss off the community-- poof! There goes the bloody neighborhood. Check: MySpace is a total cesspool (and has been ever since marketers decided that spamming and fake profiles and agenda pushing was cutting edge marketing)-- and look, its core community has long since left leaving it a breeding ground for trashy ads, spammy marketers, and creepy old dudes.
So, I ask you Drama, how do you sell to a community without alienating, pissing-off, or at best, being totally ignored by that community? I have a suggestion-- JOIN THE CONVERSATION.
1.29.2008
More Drama!
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1 comment:
I would suggest that marketers must do BOTH, but in different venues.
Marketers have long been out of the conversation. We were raised/trained to create a highly-polished value proposition that would lead to a sale, and to create a one-way monologue that we could control.
Not only has that horse left the barn, but the barn's been burnt to the ground. So we have to adjust our thinking (and I still see SO many colleagues that have yet to comprehend this shift) to take brand DIALOGUE into account. Where can dialogue happen easily? Social networks, baby!
Drama is also right: marketing is ALL about sales enablement. Without sales, marketing means nothing. That said, the brands that show up in social networks yelling "buy, buy, buy" are like Amway salesmen showing up at a neighbor's cocktail party. They're stupid and self-serving and it's obvious to everyone but themselves. But those that place customer advocacy ABOVE self-interest and quarterly sales targets, and leverage trust networks to do so in ways that are not distasteful, will succeed and be rewarded in their socially-enabled market.
So, like, you're both right.
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