We all know how marketing has worked from the 1930s to the present time.

in 1930, advertising was invented. Marketing was simple, you interrupted people in their newspaper and broadcast at them a message.  As time went on, advertising moved to television and it was the same.  Interrupt people and broadcast a message.

In 1980 cold calling started, this was very simple, call somebody up and broadcast.  In the 1990s, email marketing was started and emails were sent to interrupt you and broadcast your message.

I bumped into somebody last week and they had come up with a 19 point plan to interrupt people, right down to SMS messages and whatsapp messages. In 2020 I was amazed that this was seen as "normal" behaviour. 

Social Media is different.  It's social ..... media.

It's not about interrupt and broadcast, it's about permission, relationships and conversations.

Social media is about knowing somebody, liking somebody and trusting somebody.  Because people buy from who they like and trust. 

Advertising Is Not Social

Let's not forget that advertising isn't social ..... it's advertising. 

If you pay for sponsorship around a football game it does not make you a football manager or a football player.

Your Clients Have Moved onto Social

This is a set of interesting research and it's "current" as in it's Covid19 related as it covers the month of June 2020.

I've seen a number of pieces of research that have been issued recently and while they are from the first three months of the year, as they are all before lockdown it could be a million years ago.

Anyway the figures are in and the use of Social Media is up!

Marketing Have Found Social Media

"60.8% indicating they have shifted resources to building customer-facing digital interfaces and 56.2% transforming their go-to-market business models. CMOs are also using their employees to get active online (68.6%) and to improve digital interfaces (61.8%)."

"As marketers struggle with layoffs and mounting expectations to do more with less, social media has been their saving grace, with 84.2% of marketers saying they use social media for brand building and 54.3% saying they use it for customer retention. Consistent with this, marketers have poured dollars into social media budgets, which have increased 74% since just February, rising from 13.3% of marketing budgets to 23.2%. Marketers believe this strategy has paid off with the contributions of social media to company performance rising for the first time in CMO Survey history—up 24% since February."

But There is More - A Business Case Maybe?

In this interview with Danielle Guzman who is Global Head of Social Media for Mercer and we discuss "5 Things to Kick Start Your Employee Advocacy Program" and she shares the value they have gained from empowering their employees with social media.

Mercer are getting 3 to 4 times the attributed revenue than the brand generates.  Can you believe that? If the brand is creating $10 million, then empowering your team on social will generate $40 million.

There could be a business case there, even to use an outside company to help you. Hint, hint. ;)

The Word Has Changed However Much You Deny It

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said

"As COVID-19 impacts every aspect of our work and life, we've seen two years' worth of digital transformation in two months," 

B2B is now B2C

All of us are using to Zoom or Teams to make calls, in fact there are 300 million daily participants on Zoom.  That is a 4 fold increase on last year.

Zoom is now the 6th most downloaded app.

Life has moved online .... we work from home, study from home, we shop from home, we go to church from home, we go to scouts from home, we go to the gym at home.  In fact, being online is part of all of our lives. This isn't just a few, it's everybody.

My mother (82) runs her wine group through Zoom. They even had a member, who drives around dropping a wine bottle off on each members doorstep. So they can drink the same wine and talk about, all at the same time.... online.

How is Social Media Making an Impact?

Simon Kemp in his research says that there are 4.57 Billion people in the world on the internet, that is up 7% on last year.  There are 3.81 Billion people, active, on social media.  That is up 300 million on last year.

So while "Sharon" on facebook left Facebook, 300 million people joined.

Covid19 has seen a 50% increase in social media usage.

In fact the world has changed with social media, from the way ideas are propagated to the way we do business. 

So What? - The Winners are on Social

This Business to Consumer (B2C) world gets pulled into Business to Business (B2B) world. In other words our B2C behaviours, become normal in B2B. How? Because we bring our everyday lives into the world of work.

BMW for example, even before Covid19 was selling through social.  In November last year, they got 28 pieces of inbound (people making an enquiry to buy cars) through LinkedIn.  I'm not talking about their website, I'm talking about people making enquiries through social.

BMW ere able to convert 14 of these into sales.  Let's assume a BMW is $50,000, that's 14 x $50,000 = $700,000

That's an additional $700K that they signed from social media.  This was for zero cost of Marketing.

Ironically, their competitor, Jaguar Land Rover announced in the same month, November 2019 that they were reducing production as they were not selling enough cars.

This is clear evidence that business has moved to social and the winners who are there .... are winners. And the losers who are not there ... are losers.

What does this mean for marketers?

This means that B2B buyers are very comfortable going online and searching for good and services.  Your good and services.

That means that if you and your sales team are not active on social, then you are leaving money on the table.  It could also be worse than that, you are falling behind your competition and you are no longer relevant to the modern consumer.

Buyer Behaviour Covid19 Style

This online world has enable us as consumers and buyers to even more comfortable with online buying.  So while the BMW buyers above were OK last November to make a considered purchase using the internet and social media.  It means that there is an inherent behaviour in us to support this.  

What is this change in buyer behaviour?

If I say to you that the iPhone is the best phone on the market, what would you do?  Of course you will make your own enquiries, you will search on the internet, you will read content, you will ask your friends on social.  We are all now, Ok with this, it's natural.

The Impact this makes on marketing today.

Why You Old School Marketing Drives Business for Your Competition 

This means if you advertise at me, send me an email or cold call you.  I will look you up.  I will look up who is making the approach (the salesperson) and I will jump to a conclusion about that person based on their passive and active online behaviour.

I will also do all the activities I described above.

If you advertise, cold call me or email me I will go online, I will search and find your competitors. I will compare you with them.

If you are not active online, your sales people look like spammers, or you are invisible online, what conclusion will I jump to?

That you don't exist as a business.

All Your Advertising, Email Marketing and Cold Calling is Driving Business to Your Competitors 

Let me make a guess that if you are investing in advertising, cold calling or email marketing you are not investing in social ...... I would make a guess that all this money on advertising, cold calling and email marketing is driving people to buy from your competitors.

You are Marketing and Selling in an Analogue Form But Your Buyers are Digital

Can you see the mismatch?

So what as a marketer and a sales leader are you going to do about it? 

To quote my good friend Larry Levine

"has the window of relevancy closed with many of your customers and prospects?"

You can find me on social here