How you ask? Well, I don’t care if you are IBM or Bubba’s Country Store—you must remember that your audiences are just people. People like you and me. No matter what kind of façade they put up, they still put their pants on one leg at a time. They still have emotions and they just want to be treated fairly.

I know there are exceptions to this rule, but I contend that the vast majority of people in this world like things to be as simple, easy and straightforward as possible. Especially as the world gets louder and more aggressive, people seek an honest voice of reason to cut through the clutter and to help them make a good decision.

I’ll give you an example. About 8 years ago, I was introduced to a man who cut my hair until he passed away a year and a half ago. He was just a nice guy who cared about me and did good work. Well, his daughter also worked in his shop, but I never had her cut my hair until the first time I went in for a haircut after her father had passed.

You see, I didn’t consider letting someone else cut my hair when her daddy was alive, but I knew how he loved his daughter, and it was the right thing to do to continue to give their family my business. Why? Because I am a human being who craves simple connections. I am just like your customers. I like that I could sit down and talk with my “barber” (Chester would have hated that term) and now I can do the same with his family, often talking about him, and I now even bring my son with me.

What’s this have to do with marketing, content, and business? Everything. We are so quick to try to make a science out of something that is about human beings and we often miss the mark because of it.

We speak over our audience because we know something they don’t. We talk down to our audience because we THINK we know something they don’t. We completely miss our audience because we never really figure out what they want from us.

We do everything to make our audience want us except the one thing that we can do the best—just be ourselves. Just be a regular person who is looking to help out another regular person. It’s marketing’s version of the golden rule: Market unto others as you would have others market unto you.

Stop trying to be cool and chic. The vast majority of people don’t care about that kind of stuff (and those that do will dump you quickly to go with the next shiny object that comes into their path). The shiny object crew are not customers—they are just transactions. Businesses need a mix of both, but customers are the priority.

Treat your customer like they are visiting you at the corner store. Treat them well. Be genuinely concerned about their needs and respond when they need you to. Remember that they are a lot like you, and that’s a good thing.

Comments

What is being said by the people in the marketplace that actually understand social media (not the legions of so-called experts who are just desperate to make a buck) is that the correct use of social media provides opportunity, Notice the use of the word correct. Not just the use of social media but the CORRECT use of social media. Oh and it provides opportunity, not automatic sales and revenue.

It may even be more accurate to discuss the correct expectation of social media especially in times when SMB’s are squeezed with no credit and limited cash flow. Desperate times have caused many to hear that the use of social media will bring sales. That creates an unrealistic expectation that if you just engage in social media then you will see your business flourish. If only it were that easy. The truth is much more involved and actually has a potential downside. That’s right, I used the term ‘social media’ and ‘downside in the same sentence. How dare me!

I started thinking about this as it relates to the SMB marketplace after reading one sentence from Jon Swanson’s blog post from February of last year. Jon is a pastor of a Christian church and he is apparently very good at what he does. People like Chris Brogan recommend him even if there is no Christian side of their life. Swanson said the following about prayer but it applies perfectly to the plight of the SMB in the social media space.

Before any requests are made. Before any apologies are offered. Before any transactions are begun, relationship is established.

Amen, Jon. It is for this very reason that many small business people are being led astray by social media charlatans who tell them to ‘just do it’ and success will follow. That’s simply not true.

Putting yourself out there as a business in the social media space is the means and not the ends. If you are there to sell your service as your primary goal I can tell you right now you will have limited success. In addition, the success you do have will be short-lived when it is discovered that the transaction was your focus and not the relationship. Sounds mushy doesn’t it? It is and it is the truth.

So all of you ‘hard closers’ out there don’t get closed on the idea that just because you are participating in social media activities that your cash register will ring. Your desire to sell rather than build a relationship that may lead to a real sale will make you stick out like a sore thumb. If that happens you are done.

So for the SMB’s that are being bombarded with the message that social media will save the day for your business I ask you to be very cautious. Don’t buy the line that social media is a magic pill. The line you should be buying is that of Jon Swanson.

Before any requests are made. Before any apologies are offered. Before any transactions are begun, relationship is established.

Thanks, Jon, for the reminder.

Comments