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As the head of Engagement Media (among other things) for a Fortune 500 Company, it was refreshing to read Scotty Monty’s interview about Ford’s Approach to Social Media. No matter what companies do, they get blasted – Pepsi doesn’t use UGC for their new logo, they get shit for it. If they had used UGC, they would have gotten shit for that too.
My favorite question/answer of the whole article was:
With the overwhelming amount of tools available, how do you determine which fit with your overall outreach strategy?
For us, it’s largely about mainstream. Joining a large company has helped me to understand that much of the social media experts/evangelists have their heads in the clouds with respect to the technology. We’re so far ahead of the curve, it’s not funny. For my audience, blogs & Facebook are safe havens, and Twitter is pretty advanced. If I said “Plurk” in a meeting, I’d be laughed out of the room (or asked if I was feeling okay). And for our customers – people who buy cars – are the mainstream.
Interactive marketing people need to remember that a lot of online tools still only cater to the bleeding edge. When you need to put 40,000 heads in beds and 10,000 butts in seats EVERY DAY, well you need to reach out, embrace and LOVE the mainstream. And yes, that means still doing Email Campaigns and Direct Mail pieces. Whether you want to admit it or not, we’re ALL in the money making business. The mainstream generates the money I need. The bleeding edge? Not quite yet.
An easy example of this is the Motrin Mom debacle… If you asked social media evangelists, the whole world knows about the Motrin campaign that was taken down due to Mommy Bloggers. Hate to break it to you, but I’ve mentioned it to several friends, family members, coworkers and marketers. The result? Blank stares and shaking heads.
Moral of the story? Stop giving companies shit for still just dipping a toe into social media. These companies are attempting to embrace what to them and their customers is still a Brave New World. Welcome them with open arms, praise them when they do something you like, gently tell them what they’re doing wrong and offer suggestions on how to improve. Do this and you’ll see more big boy toes. Blast them like you did Motrin and you’ll see a lot more backs.
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