During the past year I have spent time thinking about the profound effect social media will have on Enterprises around the world. By the end of 2010, I suspect most large and medium Enterprises will have an active social media strategy.
The key to leveraging social media in the Enterprise is the empowering of customers with the ability to engage in the viral marketing of that companys products and/or services.
Leverage the power of the passionate customer and that customer will contribute their energy and their reputation in building the buzz and extending the reach of the company to their own friends in their social circles. Understanding this and empowering this is core in order for Enterprises to be successful in their outbound social media efforts.
Enterprises that do not provide a method for their customers to express their passion and their commitment to a company are at risk being competitively disadvantaged by those companies that do.
While thinking about ways for Enterprises to best leverage social media, the song “Sweet Dreams are Made of This” floated into my mind and I couldnt help but notice how the lyrics in this song mirrored a lot of what I was thinking.
Key social media phrases from the song “Sweet Dreams are Made of This”:
everybody’s looking for somethin’.
This is a reminder we can not take our customers for granted.
We need to serve our customers and earn their respect and make sure they know we are there to serve them.
Some of them want to use you
Relationships require some give and take. And there will be times when your customers will want something from you. It is up to you to recognize this and make a value judgement whether or not you want to be leveraged in that way.
some of them want to get used by you
This is the KEY line of the song and the reason why this song is a natural contender to be a Social Media Anthem in my mind.
Customers who are passionate want to be asked to share their passion in support of a product/service they are passionate about. Understand and recognize this simple phenomena. Provide a way for customers to share their passion and you will be ahead of all competitors who have not yet come to understand this.
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Enterprises that learn how to unleash the passion of their customers and help them leverage their own social graphs will be the first to benefit from their investment in an active social media strategy.
Tags: Eurythmics, marketing, Social Media, Jeff Pulver
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