Marketing, promotion and business today are easier than ever. Tools can help people. Metaphors abound, but “social media as a weapon” feels odd to me.

social media as a weapon

You start by listening. You can look at a complaint, a sarcastic comment or an off based remark as an annoyance, but I’m personally thankful for every real engagement. Bots (both software and people who post like they were a bot) are in the way, but real people writing are a blessing and I’m grateful.

Today on EmprieAvenue, I got shareholder mail (a private message sent only to players who invested in a stock by that stock’s owner) with a very long pitch that ended up mostly whining about abuse to their system).

Readers responded politely and then got this reprimand:

We sincerely apologize if you misinterpret our business overview.We will used your opinion,feedback and suggestion to improve our company organization strategy in our upcoming board meeting.We have an open door policy feel free to share your idea with us.

The people writing the replies were shareholders. That means they have

  1. Spent the time and effort to be identified as real humans to play the game
  2. Picked the stock and invested (it’s a stock market game)
  3. Read the shareholder mail
  4. Spent a couple minutes more to write a response

 

My reaction before reading the shareholder replies was to either delete the message. In my experience, they aren’t there to learn, they’ll just get mad and move on.

After reading the replies, I wanted to punish the player. Since that not the way I roll, I’m keeping the stock (connection) to watch and see what happens and writing this post without mentioning names. That’s how I roll Smile

Do You Use Social Media as a Weapon?

You know that marketing today must include listening and engaging with your customers/prospects/vendors/network/shareholders. When you do engage, make sure it’s done as if the real person reading and responding is your best friend (use “mother” “sister” or “lover” here is you please.. I use “child” as I’ve learned that nothing my children do should ever make me angry).

Getting this down will allow you to attract the people you are looking for, without looking for them. I call this marketing philosophy LISTEN AND LOVE. There’s no reason you need consider any marketing too, and especially social media, as a weapon.

Listen and love.. it’s as simple as that