27 mars 2010

Brian Solis' new book and the belgian marketer's fear for social marketing


Brian Solis came out with a new book and a striking title: "Engage" while we were preaching companies in Belgium to start with  what we call the "end to end external  engagement"(I'll come back to this concept in a other post).
My book has no plan to copy cat Brian's book. I want it to reflect what I feel here in Belgium amongst marketers. They all know they'll have to start entering into dialog.
They all agree with Brian Solis when he writes: "in order for social media to mutually benefit, you and your customers, you must engage them in meaningful and advantageous conversations, empowering them as true participants in your marketing and service effort." But their management is scared. They feel they're going to lose control somewhere.
We start having cases demonstrating that those who dare will beat their competitor. Let's imagine that you build a small community of 500 people profiled as you wish with whom you could start permanent but confidential conversations. Only those who are invited can join the conversation. Try some co-creation with them. Involve them. The day you'll launch your co-created product or service or campaign, those guys will commit and shout around. And since Nielsen tells us that 90% of the people trust their peers before anybody else, these 500 people will boost your sales team and results. Give it a try. The risks are low. The investment too. The returns are high. Some companies in the US achieve 15% of their sales with fan clubs.
Give it a try before your competitor does ?
Don't you think so ?
What are your barriers to social marketing ?
Let's converse about it ? It will enrich my book with real stuff for real business in the countries where we run them. Thank You

Posted via email from Dialog or Death

Aucun commentaire:

Welcome on Patrick Willemarck's blog

I'm the founder of Dialog Solutions.
On this blog I want to share views and opinions about business and more specifically about Brands, Consumers, Marketing, market research, innovation, loyalty, etc., all those business aspects that are deeply affected by social media.
Every company shouldn't be present on every social media network. but every company is becoming porous to the outside world and has therefore to become both social and media.

Patrick