Perspectives & Strategy

Technology companies have traditionally be amongst the fist to leverage the use of new technology as a sales or support channel. Today Social media is becoming a new sales and support channel that should be an important part of developing the technology corporation.

However in leveraging such a channel a new attitude needs to be adopted. One of the key concepts of networking is that you must give in order to receive. This is true os social media marketing techniques. I would count myself as a keen observer of trends and have noticed that IT vendors have adopted two distinct approaches in respect of social media intervention. these are:

1. Leverage the technology and another advertising channel, or
2. Become fully involved in the channel

Advertising is different from involvement. Many software companies have a presence on Twitter. This morning I saw an announcement that one systems integrator was opening a new office, I have been following the company for several months now and this was the first post I had seen from that company. Other vendors are involved in regular discussion on the site and do assist the community whenever possible.

The occasional announcement falls well short of full involvement in the channel. Many IT publications for example will follow back everyone that follows them, after all social media can be a great source of news as well as a publicity channel, yet CNN has nearly 25,000 followers yet it follows only a handful of people. Leveraging social media is a two way street irrespective of the business. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of footwear provider Zappos, is committed to leveraging the power of social media to grow his business, in fact they have become the number 1 footwear retailer on the web by making customer service a competitive weapon. The company will become involved in general discussions about marketing on social media sites.

Being fully involved in the channel  includes assisting other people get their message out (especially if is is complementary to a future direction that you are considering) and providing support and assistance. It requires more than merely making announcements, it is about collaborating and assisting someone else even if there is no immediate financial gain.

Addendum 2/13/09:

It is worth looking at the following presentation:

Channels go Social Media by Michael Durbral and Axel Schultze

This will show you how some media companies are looking at this problem. Other marketing companies need to jump onto the bandwagon. They look at the need to move from reacting to transforming your sales channels. I don’t recommend much sales material, but this is interesting. They recognise the fact that most Internet users ignore advertising and hate cold callls. Marketing has certainly changed.