Other business owners are laughing at you.
They’re saying all this social media effort is for nothing.
Why not stick with the old school way of doing things?
A FedEx commercial has been causing quite a stir in the business world for a little while. You’ve probably seen the commercial on TV or maybe someone sent you an email with a link to the video on YouTube.
I have to admit it’s pretty good. In fact, it’s really good.
FedEx: “Social Media”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e17hOzO4lWs
We’ll give FedEx the benefit of the doubt on this one. They are probably just stirring up a little controversy, which is a great way to get attention and for selling a specific product. They do a really good job of that because for businesses that need to ship things FedEx is a great option.
But what’s also happening with this ad is that some people are brushing off social media (a loosely based term) and sticking with the tried and true way of doing things.
This is dangerous if you’re sticking with the current paradigm. Well, it’s not dangerous, but you’re leaving out a big portion of the upcoming market.
Listen, the tried and true way of doing business is still important. In fact, it’s probably most important. Catalogs, TV ads, radio ads, etc. They all are great for acquiring new customers.
But if we ignore how things change in the world we risk losing out on growth in the future. It might not happen in our lifetime, but for some it does and you can really risk the timing of change.
I worked for a catalog company that had been around for over a hundred years. In the early days they had a store. Then they had door to door salespeople. Then they switched to catalogs.
You can bet that with each change came blowback from those that laughed just like the people laughing at the FedEx commercial on social media.
It happens all the time in world. We like the way things are for the most part. When someone comes along with something that threatens to change the way we do things we fight back. We laugh it off and try to get others to laugh. It makes us feel good in the short-term and we think we’ve won.
Social Media and Blogging
We’ve discussed social media and specifically blogging in depth here on the GBW blog. A blog is a great way to get new customers if your customers are spending time online searching for things, reading email and using social media.
If your customer isn’t in that segment then you can look elsewhere for marketing models.
But if your customer (or future target customer) is in that category it’s time to pay attention.
Just for fun I searched “radiator valve” on Google. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
The top natural result for me was PexSupply.com and its Radiator Valve page.
After looking at the page you’ll notice some really great content describing the product.
Also at the bottom left you’ll notice a link to the company blog. It’s no surprise to see that the blog has some really useful posts. I’m sure the company has a great blogging strategy and overall content strategy.
Because of these efforts they’ve actually increased the value of their radiator valves, which are probably pretty much the same as everyone else’s in the industry.
Google knows this to be true and it’s why they rank PexSupply.com as the top result for “radiator valves”.
Now, it is true that FedEx has to ship the valves and do a few other things. It’s a very vital part of the service, but once the shipping method is optimized you still need to get new customers.
Even radiator valve companies need to find those customers. And right now more people are going online to find information. They’re searching on Google and they’re searching on social media.
Some will laugh like those that are laughing at the commercial.
Others will be working on their blogging strategy in the background building up a huge collection of assets that will bring in new customers for years.
It’s your choice.