There are lots of exciting new marketing channels and ideas floating around these days. I feel we are in a re-invention period for our craft, perhaps the largest shift since the ascendancy of television in the 1950's. A season of exploration and experimentation full of great hope and "coming of age" energy. It's all so cool...that it's easy to lose track of why we are here.
In the end, we are hired to persuade. To convince a targeted audience to prefer our brand and buy it repeatedly. Lose site of this objective at your brand's risk (and your own).
Don't get me wrong, there are different forms of persuasion. Persuasion doesn't have to be clumsy, predictable and heavy-handed. It can be subtle, enticing and elegant. Persuasion plays in different disguises....but it must play.
Why build a community on social networks? To build relationship. Why relationship? To open a channel of interactive dialogue. Why dialogue? So we can listen, understand and ultimately craft product and messages that are persuasive. To persuade.
If this feels exploitive and manipulative to you, don't worry. The consumer knows what you are trying to do. Do you?
