What makes marketing successful today is different from what made it successful just a few years ago.  Control.  Look at nearly ever marketing piece and determind who is in control.  It’s always the marketer.  He decides what to sell, what to say and who gets the message.  The prospect is merely a bit player in the scenario.  Well, that was yesterday.  Problem is, many traditional marketers have yet to realize that those days are dying.

Today, the consumer has all the power.  If they see a marketing piece and are offended by it, that marketer gets slammed all over the internet.  Social media sites are talkiing about this exact point, and they are naming the names of the offenders. 

In the “old days,” marketing managers were king.  They called all the shots and pulled all the levers.  Today, they don’t want to give up that power and control, so they continue to push onward in a dying world.  Here is how it works:

A group of like-minded people gather online.  What makes them like-minded is often their profession – or your target market.  So, let’s say it’s chiropractors.  They gather and exchange information on a Linked In Group.  These Groups are similar to a Master-Mind Group.  If they are your target market, and you have a record of poor service, don’t you think your name will come up when they discuss people and firms to avoid?  At the point of that online conversation, you lost all your control.  Your firm lost all its control.  The target market gained all the control. 

The question for you is:  what are you going to do about it?

In the past few months, I’ve become obsessed with Social Media Marketing. It’s very much like direct marketing (direct mail), but very different, too. I squeezed my brain trying to pinpoint the essence of the difference. This is important because until you get a handle on the psychological differences, you can’t be effective.

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

1. SMM is a totally different philosophy. It focuses on building relationships, not just buyers. This relationship-building process turns out to be the same one we describe in two of our books: Axis of Influence and the 5 Levels of Rapport.

2. Unlike every other marketing medium, SMM is totally dependent on good, clear writing. No graphics, no photos, no colors. Just good writing.

Question: what do you see as the differences?

- Michael Lovas