Excerpted from 2020 Vision of Marketing by Denise Wymore
Excerpted from 2020 Vision of Marketing
by Denise Wymore
When we first started writing the 2020 Vision of Marketing, we naturally asked, "So how much of it should be about social media?" We came to this conclusion: None of it and all of it. Social media is not Facebook, Twitter or the new tool du jour by the time you read this. It's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It does not fix problems. It cannot make you hip and cool if you're not hip and cool. We feel that every organization needs to make the shift from marketing that includes pushing, stalking and screaming to first observing. The tools provided to you, we hope, will do that. Observe what you truly value by being honest with what you measure and manage. If it's a service culture you're trying to create, then have the guts to mesaure it using the Net Promoter Score. We also believe that as a marketer, your job is first and foremost to create a brand that is worth talking about. Generation Y will market for you using whatever social media tools they love at the moment to guide people to you. It's not unlike the way marketing started in credit unions. We served people with a common bond. We solved a problem for them. We were willing to do things for them that banks would not. And we knew them by name, listened to their stories and took chances. They in turn would go back to the office, the warehouse or the classroom and tell their co-workers how great their credit union was. That is social media without a cell phone or computer. It's not being on Facebook; it's being the best. The smartest thing you can do it join the conversation. Let go of controlling it. Invite participation. Stop stalking and start talking.
Denise Wymore is a credit union lifer, evangelist, and cheerleader for passion and commitment. Most recently she co-founded 6th Story and authored The 2020 Vision of Marketing. Learn more and register for CUES School of Strategic Marketing I, July 14-16, Seattle, and CUES School of Strategic Marketing II, July 17-18, Seattle.
