Customer Relationship 360 (aka Marketing Today)

Often times when I talk about social media strategies, I explain that social media lets everyone be the center of their universe. Each and every one of us should be able to feel like the center of the universe. If your customer happens to use LinkedIn on a day to day basis, then access to everything relevant for your product, service, business, or mission should be available from within that environment. The customer or “user” shouldn’t have to change their preferred environmental preference to associate with, learn from, contribute to, or promote your business. If they live and breathe on Facebook then all the same applies, and if they live in a mobile environment they should be able to access all the relevant parts of the business from within their mobile browser, mobile application or messaging program. This requires research and planning. Where do your customers live and breath online? What conversations do they want to have and where are they comfortable having them? Once you understand their environment and preferences you can begin to create your social media plans delivering information in the appropriate orbits.

Thinking about your business in 360 degrees is important for today’s customer relationships too. Your customer wants to know about all the ways you share similar interests or concerns. About all they ways your partnership can accomplish a common goal. Sharing lots of information about who you are as individuals and as an organization will turn some people away but those few were never going to be the customers who evangelized your product, service or cause. The people who will be drawn to you will stay and they will be exponentially more powerful forces on your business than those who find you’re “not a match”. My Dad always told me that in order to be successful you had to be brave enough to be loved for who you really are and for what you really value. It’s the same in business. Smart brands are living and breathing brands, sharing more than the polished messages and inspiring ideas instead of controlling conversation.

When you look at your business from the outside in, can you see who and what it is all the way around? Can you see your core values? Your sense of humor? Can you see the universe of which you are the center? If not, then you need to share the parts that are missing in consumable sharable ways. If you can then keep on keeping it real and share a story about how this level of access has impacted your organization.

KTF
-KSL