Very funny. Just wrote an email to somebody that the real value of Social Business is not about “spamming” followers with the same Marketing messages, we used to send out by email newsletter. To much Social SPAM is even contra-productive and has negative impact.
One example from today: Got email notifications from XING, the “German LinkedIn”. 28 invites to events in my XING Inbox. And this although I have unchecked the option Event Invites in all of my communities. My consequence: I am leaving those communities, I block mails from people, who are just spamming me with promotions and event invites. This is for sure not the value of Social Media, Social Networks and Social Business.
[And this is the reason why I usually decline to send out promo Tweets to my social networks. Believe me: A lot of my colleagues approach me to help them pushing out their messages. Again: NO. This is not Social Business.]
My company (and myself) got the value out of personal interactions, discussions with people, people asking me to present at their events, discussions in communities of interest and so on. Build your network, be trust-worthy, be open and transparent, accept critical comments. And then your company and yourself benefit.
Here are my favorite quotes out if Todd Wilms posting on Forbes:
Many teams – in their rush to build a social business or inbound marketing plan – forget this important first step into a world of social media: In order to think social, you need to act personal. Incorporating this thinking into your program will yield you a chance for success. Miss on this thinking and you are certain to fail.
… the expectations of consumers have fundamentally changed. They no longer expect to be “messaged to,” they expect to part of a discussion. They no longer want “polished, jargon rich content,” they expect to be able to relate on their terms and under their timelines. …
Build Your Social Business
Once you have created this personal dialogue with your communities, and others have begun to see it, you will be amazed at how quickly your brand perception will change and grow in the market. There are still relatively few businesses who act like people with their consumers; Those who do it well now have a greenfield opportunity in the market. You can scale your business using social, but it takes you thinking like you having engaging personal conversations in order to do that.