Social Media Debates: Round 2

One Night Stand or Repeat Business?
Relationship Marketing through Social Media


On a macro level, Drama’s premise of his “are we going to talk or fuck?” approach to marketing is that he doesn’t buy the value of relationship marketing.

the situation:




Drama thinks building a relationship by engaging in dialogue with consumers online is a waste of time, and that if your target isn’t ready to hop in the sack after two drinks, then its time to move the hell on. But we’re into repeat business-- not one night stands.


Ad agency, 22squared conducted research on over 25,000 brand relationship evaluations:



And it looks like being “friends” has its benefits. Strong relationships mean higher purchase intent: (click image to view larger)


So how do we build these strong relationships that ultimately impact our ROI?

Social media is the ideal platform for building strong relationships to influence purchasing decisions. Its the largest open database and focus group, with millions of consumers offering up their psychographics like it was their job. (And again, speaking of the bottom line, think of all the money you spend on focus groups, demographic research and targeting...).

But again, when speaking about social media, and integrating a brand strategy, it is important to understand the culture and influence of your target communities. Knowing how to engage in conversation, (read: not piss off the community with gimmacky, salesy shilling) is paramount.

Social media turns marketing into a practice of multiplicity instead of subtraction as you engage with core customers, converting them into advocates and tapping into the long tail of consumers online-- its selling through “conversation.”



















And while Drama rather not waste his time with all this feel-good conversing & relationship-building, thinking that the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach is better than the slow boil when it comes down to the sales department (and also displaying a gross lack of understanding not only of social media culture, but consumer culture at large), lets take a look at a real-life client’s ROI.

Recently a leading global beauty brand divulged that last quarter they saw a

60% INCREASE IN SALES...and guess what, the only thing they changed in their marketing program was the addition of a comprehensive social media marketing/word-of-mouth strategy focused on engaging consumers in authentic one-to-one conversation.

Now, dearest Drama, that’s money you take to the bank. Fill up the Learjet, boys.



images courtesy of 22squared