I’m sitting in the Phoenix Airport getting ready to get on my flight home from the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer here in Arizona. Yesterday, I heard some great presentations and wanted to share a few of the thoughts that really resonated with me.
“Don’t use Social Media to fix your broken business model.”
Christopher S. Penn — Student Loan Network
Chris elaborated that Social Media is a “magnifier” that exposes problems as opposed to hiding them. In the past, your PR folks may have been able to “spin” a story, or might have been able to bury it by not responding. Today, with your customers armed to tell the world about your flaws through text, audio, or video, you as a company have two choices: engage in the conversation and fix the problem or ignore it and hope for the best.
“Is your brand what you say it is, or what your customers say it is?”
Scott Monty — Ford Motor Company
I like this question because it cuts to the heart of my battles with the traditionals who think that they control their brand. It’s really important for businesses to monitor the online conversations about their brands with the understanding that conversations cannot be controlled.
Tomorrow, your New Media Evangelist will add the nuggets that he gathered from today’s presentations.
Tags: New Media Evangelist mpdm Marketing Profs Digital Mixer sessions ChristopherSPenn Scott Monty
