Social Media & Marketing: Honesty is still the best policy

A new landscape

We all hear about it to the point that is has become cliché but we are indeed in a different world. We don’t have to look far beyond to the pre-internet times (should we call it the “neo dark ages”?) to see the change. Picture yourself 10 years ago and imagine someone telling you that Windows MSN would be extinct in few years. Yes, I would have laughed at that statement too. But it’s true, new social media platform have developed and new more will appear in the coming years while others that were once popular are lost and forgotten.  

Companies now have to invest human resources, capital, and time in order to sustain their online presence. It’s not just a matter of PR, your online presence will define your brand, your management, your positioning, how customers interact with you and more.  A small mistake can spread on the net and be magnified in a matter of seconds. It happens all the time in sports. Somebody says something wrong and it’s only seconds before the media picks it up.  

Take it seriously

The eyes of the world are no longer focused on the television set but rather on their mobile device screens. That’s the way people find out more about a company these days. It is important for companies to manage their online presence as carefully as they manage their PR and other communication areas. Failure to manage a company’s online presence means failure to engage in the active conversation that goes on every day with consumers via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others. 

Keep it honest, keep it polite

Marketing is almost a dirty word at times. People associate it with deceit, trickery and false hopes. While I don’t necessarily agree with this notion, it is easy to see how the field gets such a bad reputation. Companies exploiting their customers’ information without permission, pretending to be regular consumers when providing positive reviews of their own products, or companies trying to use their customers as a mean to an end are nothing but providing the guidelines for future case studies on bad business practices. 

It is harder than ever to hide anything from the public and with the public having a stronger and louder voice than ever the consequences can be devastating. Honesty is still the best policy. If your company wants to use its customers’ information tell them what is it for, how would that benefit them, and more importantly, let them know that it is possible to opt-out. What’s better, to miss having customer information or missing a customer who’s now buying from the competition?

In the end, it is still a game a trust and I believe that as a rule of thumbs customers should be treated with respect and integrity no matter whether they are in front of you, on the phone, or on a computer screen. Honesty and respect are good business.