Be The Car Crash. Social Discoverability.
I've been involved in a few days of discussions/debates now surrounding this notion of "interruptive" marketing. My personal take on it is that it really should be "interjection marketing" vs. "interruption". An interruption to me has a distinctly negative connotation, whereas an interjection is an insertion of dialog without that overriding connotation. Therefore if you're a marketer the latter would be the more effective term.
That said, I think we were all missing the larger, long term perspective. I just wrote a post on how I believe that open social platforms like Twitter will eventually need to provide users easy tools and methods of limiting/filtering access to those wishing to communicate with them (marketers). If that's true then it doesn't really matter what I prefer to call it because as a marketer I eventually won't be able to access that persons stream of information anyway. I've had multiple people contact me within the last 12 hours asking what we should be doing instead. Some of those were actually snarky comments vs. questions but I'll take up the challenge.
For one, I think the entire notion of interruptive marketing (as it's been defined in social media marketing) needs to die. {Maybe I'll convince @ambercadabra to put this on the zombie list one day}
Don't get me wrong, it's smart, it's effective when done correctly, and can provide value to the prospect, but it has a very limited shelf life. Once the marketing industry adopts it en masse it is not scalable if you're looking to build actual long term customer relationships. It eventually becomes the purview of those hit and run companies spewing massive volumes of one-off communications looking for that .001 percent that they can get to respond (e.g. spammers).
So if not that, then what? We already know the answer to this. It's already a part of the smart social media marketers portfolio. But it's hard. It's time consuming. And the sales funnel can take quite a while to start producing meaningful results. The only difference is that in the future it will be even more difficult. What I'm talking about here is the need to be interesting enough to your prospective customers that *they* choose to engage with *you*. Content is a major part of that, as is the activity of "being social". That takes us full circle to this need to talk about more than your company or industry. You'll need to be seen as a thought leader. You'll need to appear as unbiased as possible. The relationship is, and always will be, king. The difference is that you will not be able to depend on establishing that initial connection via a forced entry into your prospects life.
For the moment you can lie down in the middle of the road if you wish and force your customers/prospects to stop, but that will not last. While the analogy is a bit morbid and I surely could have come up with something better, you need to become the car crash. You need that customer/prospect to want to slow down of their own volition and see what all the fuss is about. You need the neighbors standing in their doorways asking each other what is happening down the street. You need people running to you to help.
That will only happen if you go back to the core of what social media is about. As Jay Baer so succinctly put it, "You need to *be* social, not *do* social". You need to get good at dialog, regular everyday dialog, post haste. You need to define your "social voice", when you're not talking about yourself what are you talking about and how does that provide value? You need to understand what content interests your customers and very quickly learn how to recognize it, link to it, and create it. Most importantly you have to become a part of their community. You will not be able to hover on the sidewalk listening to conversations as people walk by and then jump in like you are handing out callgirl flyers in Las Vegas. In short, you must engage and intrigue the overall community that your customers frequent so that they can discover you. Move into their neighborhood, let them walk next door and welcome you, contribute to the neighborhoods well-being, throw a party. But whatever you do you must invest yourself into the neighborhood not just the individuals who live there.
If you knock on *my* door you better be my neighbor, not some guy I don't recognize interrupting my day to try and sell me something I didn't ask for.
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
12 Comments
Matt, I get what you're saying here, I really do. Interjection and social are cool. But what I don't get is this all-or-nothing attitude from the social media crowd. Why does everything have to be social? A case can be made for interruption. Not everybody wants to first be social with you to learn what you have to offer. Before I buy a BMW do I have to first become a fan of their Facebook page? Do I first have to engage in a conversation, or can I just buy the friggin car? Let me get on the road already.
People don't have time to be social with every single brand they purchase stuff from. Sometimes it's better to interrupt me for 30 seconds, tell me what you got, I'll decide if I want it, and then go back to watching the game. I think some of the social media elite should close TweetDeck, climb down off their high social horse, and spend some time in the real world.
My guess is that this statement: "For one, I think the entire notion of interruptive marketing (as it's been defined in social media marketing) needs to die." is what made you think that I'm anti interruption marketing. What I was attempting (perhaps poorly) to say is that it needs to die because I think it is a dead end road as the ability to do it on twitter won't be available to us in the future.
A) on the user side there will be no accurate means of filtering what you deem truly valuable from what you consider junk.
B) as more people take advantage of trying to "help you" the volume of unsolicited correspondence becomes a distinct nuisance
C) either twitter or twitter clients will allow you to simply hide all correspondence from those you don't follow
I believe that brands can be extremely helpful to the customers/prospects via "interjections", but I also believe that due to the above the ability for them to do so like they can now will eventually disappear into the mix with all of the junk.
New mechanisms could arise of course. You could have a method similar to a blanket opt-in which only allows "verified" brand accounts to communicate with you for example. Various freemium strategies to be able to allow unsolicited communications if you view the ads, or a paid version with restrictive filters, etc. If nothing else it should be interesting to watch as it occurs.
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
What I think you're forgetting about the BMW purchase is that it too is based on a relationship. A deeply emotional one. It's just that in the past relationships were built differently, through "interruptive" means rather than these newfangled ones. The problem is, people have new ways to block out the old means. Plus, new means have emerged in the decision making process. One might not join a Facebook group but they'd probably hit up Google before you walked into a dealership, and social media is a big part of how that all fits together.
I think the genius of any relationship building is that it is done on a level that the customer/client/consumer wants to engage on. If you don't want to join a Facebook group for your car, I really can't blame you. Sexy ads of BMWs speeding down curvy European mountainsides (at night of course) get me going as much as the next guy.
Connection + Emotion = Relationship.
Same old game. Just new pieces.
What I think you're forgetting about the BMW purchase is that it too is based on a relationship. A deeply emotional one. It's just that in the past relationships were built differently, through "interruptive" means rather than these newfangled ones. The problem is, people have new ways to block out the old means. Plus, new means have emerged in the decision making process. One might not join a Facebook group but they'd probably hit up Google before you walked into a dealership, and social media is a big part of how that all fits together.
I think the genius of any relationship building is that it is done on a level that the customer/client/consumer wants to engage on. If you don't want to join a Facebook group for your car, I really can't blame you. Sexy ads of BMWs speeding down curvy European mountainsides (at night of course) get me going as much as the next guy.
Connection + Emotion = Relationship.
Same old game. Just new pieces.
I must admit, addendum aside, that I enjoy Matt's tact nonetheless. Sometimes you've just got to get in there a give a subject hell.
~ oi. Had a browser meltdown and it looks like i double posted! Boy are my cheeks red.
What actually got me thinking about this discussion was the various debates we're having over in the SCRM world. Many of the tools and strategies taking shape in that space are heavily invested in the fact that they'll be able to collect, analyze, and interrupt (or interject) just like they can today. So casting forward into the future I did a "what if" and arrived at my theory. If it occurs, it will certainly set some of these nascent vendors in SCRM back on their heels a bit.
All I know is I'm pulling up a front row seat and a big bucket of popcorn. I'm glad you've joined me for the show, even if the ending may not end up like any of us suspect.
Leave a Comment