Marketing Is About Relationships

Social networking pioneers lament that too many use social networking for marketing or Search engine optimisation.

Some I’ve seen say they believe that marketing is pushing out the relationships constructed through social media sites, before marketing was used.

And yet good marketing is all about building relationships with the people you know are the right ones to buy your product or service.

Think about it…

Marketing Trust

Would you buy if you didn’t believe it would last for the time you wanted it to? Would you buy something if you suspected you were being led up the garden path?

You wouldn’t. And they key to getting comfortable with buying anything is making sure that you trust what is being sold to you. And a major part of that trust is through the relationship you have with the supplier of the goods or services.

I don’t mean one where you slap each other on the back, or one where you go skiing together.

What I mean is that you build a business relationship where you feel you can trust what the other is saying.

And the problem with business is that it’s actually quite difficult to build that relationship.

And that’s where marketing comes in.

Marketing is there to inform, educate and build trust in your customers and prospects. Build trust in what you’re saying through all the mediums you say it.

Marketing Builds Trust

And the key point is building trust through all the mediums you say it. Because your target market has a choice over which communication channels it uses. Therefore your communication will only be seen, heard or read if it goes through the right channel.

Social networking has helped to differentiate groups of people and sites like Twitter mean that you can actually proactively find people who match your target market and begin to build a real relationship of trust with them.

Marketing Can Abuse Communication Channels

Granted people can abuse routes such as Twitter. However, Twitter’s openness means that marketing abuses get short shrift and the likelihood of anyone buying from a company perceived to spam or overly “market” through Twitter is low.

Instead Twitter can provide a better service for clients. Interesting items in social sites such as Digg, Twitter and others can lead to massive spikes in traffic. Those spikes in traffic can bring prospects who are actively looking for what you sell. And are pleased to find you.

Marketing Can Be Bad

In conclusion, marketing can be “bad” in any medium used. Equally, it can be very helpful to prospects and customers when it is very well targeted. Social media allows companies to get better at targeting who they build relationships with, which must be a good thing.