Joel Warady

BrainTrust Query: Is 'Social Media for Business' an Oxymoron?

February 4, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
As new marketing verbs like tweet, blog, and social networking permeate our thinking, we need to acquire a clarifying thought vocabulary that will allow us to grapple with emerging concepts and put the tools to appropriate and beneficial use. Is "Social Media for Business" an oxymoron?      [more...]

Social Media provides a platform for four types of dialogs:
Companies talking to consumers.
Consumers talking to companies.
Customers talking to other customers.
Customers talking to prospects.

Once companies understand this, and provide the platform, they should do all that they can to get out of the way, and allow the unfettered discussion to occur. For this to happen, businesses need to trust; they need to trust their employees to speak freely and directly to customers, they need to trust their customers to speak to one another, as well as to prospects, and they need to trust their own products and services. It is only after this trust is in place that social media will truly work for a business.

Social media itself is simply another part of the overall integrated marketing strategy. It is not the end-all answer to the economic challenges that a company faces, but it is a way to forge a stronger relationship between businesses and customers, whether it is B2B or B2C. Relationships are relationships, no matter what the business.