3 September 2010
I recently went on holiday to Portugal, i had a great time thanks, but i am not here to tell you about the great beach, the tasty food or the fine wine..... Or maybe i just did, anyway i digress. While i was out there i read a great book from Eric Karjaluoto called Speak Human. What Eric talked about is the need to tap into social media as a way of becoming more personal with not just our friends but also with the people we do business with and the more i read, the more i agreed with him.

We all know what social media has become engrained into our day to day actives with twitter and facebook becoming the communication channels of choice when we interact with the people in our lives, but it is not something that all businesses, especially smaller ones take full advantage of.

In this post i want to touch on some points that i believe we should all be looking at, Eric’s book goes a lot deeper and i truly recommend reading it, but here is my 2 pence on it.

Size really doesn’t matter

I think we can get caught up in the appearance of being large when really our focus should be how we engage with our customers and how we become more engrained into what they do by the services we provide and the relationships we cultivate with them.

In his book, Eric really focuses on the benefits of being small, and as a small business owner I I have to agree with the advice he gave. In their book rework, 37Signals said “big business dream about being agile and flexible”. As a small company we don’t have the arduous task of manoeuvring laboriously into position, with endless meetings and red tape that stop larger companies in their tracks. We are nimble, and by our very nature, personal, because the likelihood is your customers will get to know you and your team by name and even recognise your voices on the phone. That personal commodity is a powerful one to take advantage of, but it is a wonder why so many do not.

Get Personal

With all the tools we have available to us we have a great opportunity to get closer to our customers by simply being more personal. More and more companies are starting to utilise that power, not just from the point of view of customer service but also from the point of view of sharing knowledge and opinions and “out teaching” competitors, here are some examples:

37Signals, are a software company which produces simple to use online software, and for years they have been sharing there ideas and interacting with their fans and customers using their signals vs. noise blog (They out teach).

Harvest is an online time management and billing application that uses twitter to interact with their application and also as a tool to deliver better customer services. The guys that built this app are known for interacting with their customers via social tools and also being open with things don’t quite go there way.

Gary Vaynerchuck is someone who polarises opinions (mine too), but he has done things in the wine industry that has set him apart from anyone else simply by using his passion for wine and the tools available for him to share his opinions.

Don’t just broadcast, Interact

We shouldn’t look at social media marketing as we would traditional marketing programs. Social media, by its very existence is built around interactions as it allows us to engage in a two way conversation, and that’s where it holds its true potential. Some companies are missing the point when they use the tools as a broadcast mechanism without opening themselves up for responses, that’s not interaction.

I met my girlfriend at a friend’s house in 2007, but after our brief meeting there was a slight logistics problem that would stop us getting to know each other (we lived in different countries) so we began to communicate through facebook. It was well over a year before we met in person again, but the interaction we had ensured that we pretty much knew each other straight away. This is a personal story, but that is the point, you can engage, build trust and relationships by simply opening up a two way conversation, and using technology in a human way.

Speak Human

This is the title of Eric Karjaluotos’ book, and i think it perfectly defines what we should be doing. Over the years, we seem to have push to one side the ability to really communicate with each other, and replaced it with a shiny facade that really doesn’t represent what we are all about.

Paul Boag put it nicely in his book The Website Owner’s Manual where he states “Most organisations feel the need to maintain a flawless facade with users. This serves to create a barrier, reinforcing the feeling that users are dealing with a faceless corporation”. We don’t need to be perfect, because as human beings we are not!

Be yourself, share your stories, interact and communicate with your customers, open up your business and make it transparent, and do it in a human way. You should interact the way that you would with friends and family, that way you build trust as people know they do not have to turn on their bullshit detectors with your company. This doesn’t mean you should air all your dirty laundry, but if you make a mistake hold your hands up and say you’re sorry, if you have a piece of knowledge that someone may find useful share it, but most importantly open up the communication channels with you customers and speak human.

Let other people do your marketing

I have pretty much spent this post telling you what other people have said and done. These people have shared with me their work, their ideas and opinions and have taught me news skills and ways of thinking. Now, without even thinking about it, i have promoted books, websites and software and that is the true power of social media and being personal. Once you engage with people, they share, and they become the driving forces behind your business, and let’s be honest you don’t get a better recommendation than a personal one!

References

Book: Speak Human – Eric Karjaluoto

Book: Rework – Jason Fried & David Heinemeirer Hansson

Book: Website Owner’s Manual – Paul Boag

Book: Crush It – Gary Vaynerchuck

Web: Social Media – Wikipedia