Recently I’ve been traveling to Silicon Valley. For the past two months I’ve been staying in the Hilton Garden Inn on El Camino Real in Mountain View.
The hotel is nice and clean and offers free WiFi, which of course this New Media Evangelist appreciates.
When I fire up my laptop to connect to the free WiFi, a screen comes up. Incredibly, Google WiFi has four bars, compared with the hotel’s three. Pretty cool, eh?
A few weeks ago, my boss forwarded a voice mail from a vendor who produces and hosts custom B2B videos. They asked to speak with her, and so as any good manager would do, she delegated the call to me.
It wasn’t the first time that I heard from this vendor. I had spoken with them months earlier and was thoroughly unimpressed with their Old-Media offerings. Their business consists of recording corporate videos, creating custom web pages around it, and then protecting that video from being seen by the masses by putting a registration system around it — all for a princely sum.
As a dutiful employee, I made the telephone call. I don’t even think I finished explaining who I was when the sales guy launched into his speech. He talked about how he wanted to do more business with us. He talked about how important it was to have professionally developed corporate videos, and how they would directly impact product sales. He explained how my largest COMPETITOR was using his services — as if that had any relevance to what WE were doing. That’s when I got to talk.
I told him that I’m pushing my company to do MORE videos, that were SMALLER, LESS staged, LESS produced, and LESS hyped. Instead of thirty-minute videos recorded in THEIR pristine studio, I was encouraging five-minute, personal videos recorded in OUR offices. I told him that instead of a SCRIPT, I wanted folks talking from their HEARTS. Oh, and while I was at it, I didn’t want our content hidden behind a registration system — I wanted it to be “downloadable” for free. And heck, while I’m at it, I wanted RSS Feeds of the content.
The silence at the other end of the phone was deafening. The sales guy took notes and told me that he’d get back to me.
A few days later, he called back, enthusiastically explaining that his company was adding new services in tune with the things that I spouted during my New Media diatribe. He asked if he could come by to discuss these new offerings. In the back of my mind, I didn’t believe him, but when I checked with my boss she said, “Sure, let ‘em come in and tell us what they’ve got.”
The meeting happened yesterday and it didn’t go so well. The sales guy came in with two others, who proceeded to twist my vision into their Old Media model. They offered to host MY videos on THEIR network for $995 per video plus $100 per month (1 year subscription minimum). While they were at it, they’d throw in a custom web page and hide my videos behind their registration system. The sales pitch continued. Unlike other free services like YouTube, they promised to CONTROL our video. Their “value proposition” was to offer us Control over:
It was all about control. Control THIS for $995. Control THAT for $100 per month. Control, control, control, blah, blah, blah.
“And what about RSS?” I asked.
“Isn’t that downloadable?” one of the reps asked incredulously. “What if your competitors got hold of it? “Don’t you want to control who sees your videos?”
“No,” I said. “I’d prefer to have people watch them.”
It’s funny. Most of my posts are about my battles with “The Traditionals,” those folks who are so set in their ways that they refuse to understand New Media. I know that they go home at night, hoping that this “New Media Fad” will be over so that they can go back to writing their same old Press Releases, going to their same old trade shows, and launching their same old marketing campaigns. But the joy of being a New Media Evangelist is when you get a convert, when you see the spark in their eyes and you know that they “get it.”
I’ve developed two classes for my company: Social Media 101 and Social Media 201. Over the past year I’ve presented them three times. Ken attended my first class; Kathy attended my second; and “J” attended my third. Ken and Kathy have jumped into New Media with enthusiasm; “J” has taken every opportunity that she can to napalm it. Ken and Kathy have seized the idea of New Media, put their personal flavor onto it, and have incorporated it into their worlds. “J” has not only successfully avoided it, but she’s convinced others to do the same.
But why? What is it bout these first two people that separates them from the third? Why do some people “get it” and others refuse to try? Why do some people see the power of these new communication devices, while others fight them with every fiber of their being?
The answer hit me on a nonstop flight from San Jose to Orange County California last week. I’ve gotten to know Ken and Kathy a little more over the past year and I’ve learned that they both share a similar trait — they trust people.
Social Media requires the ability to make connections with people — which comes down to trust. I’ve found that those people who are trustful, make the best New Media coverts. Those who have confidence in not only their abilities, but the abilities of their coworkers and their professional colleagues, they make the best converts. Those who don’t tend to have a harder time.
Who is it in your life that you trust? Your family? Friends? Spouse? I hope so. What about your boss? The company that you work for? Your customers? And what about your sources of information? Do you trust the information in a marketing brochure, a banner advertisement, or a direct marketing campaign? C’mon, be honest. If your life depended on it, would you really trust the information in a standard-issue-fake-quotes-outlandish-claims Press Release?
Social Media thrives on trust. If the role of marketing is to deliver messages to the marketplace, then trust is the Social Media vehicle that carries them the farthest. Here’s where we step onto very shaky ground with regards to the Traditionals. Traditional marketeers like “J” have never had to deal with trust before. Their job has been to seed messages, bring eyeballs to advertisements, and measure “hits.” All of these vehicles rely on control — controlling the message or controlling the conversation.
Unfortunately, control doesn’t work a “Trust Economy.” Think about it. Do you trust controlling people? Isn’t there another name for the person at the party who controls a conversation? Aren’t they called a bore?
Who do your customers trust? What are you doing to help gain your customer’s trust? What are you, as a CEO, CIO, VP Marketing, Director Marcomm, Director Public Relations or New Media Evangelist doing to engender the trust of your customers?
Tags: trust ronamok traditionals trust economy New Media Social Media
