Chris has another excellent post today(Which has led to excellent discussions in the comments) explaining that marketing is not social media, and social media is not marketing. It’s easy to see why marketers are ga-ga by social media. But the problem remains that companies are attempting to take their ‘me first’ marketing mentality, and apply it to social media, hoping it will outcome in their suddenly having unfiltered access to ‘consumers’.

It won’t.

Because we don’t want to be sold to. And the LAST thing we want is for companies to take tools that construct it easier for us to create and exchange composition, and use those tools to instead pitch products to us. that is where many marketers are spinning their wheels right now.

Now we WILL allow marketers to talk to us about their products and services whether they can first demonstrate that they can use these tools to create and exchange valuable substance. IOW, whether they are willing to use these tools for the same reasons we do, soon after they’ll reap the benefits.

Chris explains:

If you’re Burger King and you’re looking to influence whether I go there or not, use plain old marketing. It’s just fine. It’s the right tool for the job. So is advertising. You don’t HAVE to use social media for that.

But, whether you’re Burger King and you want to understand me, to get what’s really going on inside my head, and know what we have in common, soon after THAT is where social media can be useful. Talk to me. Get to know me. Ask me about me and the things that aren’t about you.

Unfortunately, the second paragraph seems like a ‘waste of time’ to many marketers rooted in the ‘traditional’ mindset. In fact, it’s the key to more efficient marketing. In most cases, you have two different groups; the company, and its customers. Both groups have their own sets of wants and needs, and speak their own language. As a outcome, neither

group really understands or trusts the other. Distrust and misunderstanding serves to further strengthen that wall, and form it higher.

But social media can be the X-Factor. For example, a company can start blogging from its side of the wall. But as the customer gives its input via comments, the language and thinking of the customer begins to seep into the company’s space. And whether the company is willing to listen, soon after the customer can start to have an impact on how the company does business. The wall begins to crack. next the customer sees that the company is listening, so the distrust begins to fade. The wall begins to crumble. whether taken to its happy extension, the line amidst company and customer will start to blur.

But again, none of that happens until companies are willing to put aside their egos and outdated view that marketing is about blasting one-way promotional messages at an audience that has purposely opted out of the conversation. Social media isn’t a silver bullet that will convert a company’s marketing to invent it more efficient. But whether they are willing to listen and use the tools as we do, and for the same reasons, social media CAN be a silver bullet that transforms the company itself, which WOULD conclusion in their marketing being more efficient.

What would marketing look like whether in 2-3 years, every major company had 2-3 Chris Brogans working there teaching their company about the potential of social media?

UPDATE: Lewis offers his take on the benefits and downsides of social media for businesses.

Nother UPDATE: My latest post from Daily Fix, covering a new report that stays that 1 out of every 6 society in the world will be interacting with social media by 2012.

Pic via Flickr user Old Sarge

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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Original post by Mack Collier