One of my clients attended a Social Media Marketing forum at Deakin University recently. He was surprised just how out of touch most marketing and business managers are with this medium as a means for promoting a business. The questions being asked were about how to control staff access to social media or how to post their brands’ advertising and collateral across the newer platforms.

This top down approach where management dictates the agenda no longer cuts it.

In the same way the Internet has empowered the public to access their news, music and entertainment whenever they want, not when the distributers choose to roll it out, Social Media is taking the online quest for information about products and services away from publishing and brand sites. Social Media is creating a vibrant forum for conversation about products, services and brands beyond the direct control of a company’s sales and marketing force.

The statistics show the rapid pace of change of where people are going online in search of information of all kinds.

Trend away from website visitation to Social Web

Google trends show over the last 2 years a significant decline in visitors to brand and media sites.

Boom in Social Media and content sharing

More people are seeking and sharing what they want online.               

It’s no longer enough to have a brochure style website, you can no longer sit back while your salesforce distributes your marketing collateral and your marketing department runs ads telling the masses how good you are.

Everyone in your organisation and every one of your customers is now a prospective advocate for your business. Or they might be saying your competitors are better. You can’t control the conversation, but to compete today you need to formulate a social media strategy, coach your staff, create content of use to customers and prospects and contribute to the conversation in an open and honest way.