Social Media Marketing = Humanization

The title might seem a little odd but I will try to explain what I mean. Social Media marketing is a sector that most companies have recently embraced. The reason of course is because they see the potential of adding more to their sales number. That is the key to marketing and the only reason a way business can sustain – get more sales, make more money. No doubt about it.

Most businesses that use Social Media as a marketing tool don’t realize that social media isn’t traditional marketing. In the real world throwing a billboard on a crowded street might draw some attention but taking the same approach on the web with social media isn’t going to work. There is a reason why it is called social media – because you need to be social. The prime element of social media marketing is humanization of your business through active participation. By humanization I mean that your company needs to be seen as a person, an individual willing to participate and offer valuable suggestion to the community. If you offer nothing but products alone that is not marketing, we call that spam.

The key to social media marketing is making sure that your company is seen by the community as a human and not just a business. The meaning of humanization according to Merriam-Webster,

to represent as human : attribute human qualities to b: to adapt to human nature or use

If you would like to use social media as a marketing platform, take this meaning literally and apply it to your marketing strategy on social media. Show qualities of a human, in this case your customers. What are they talking about? What are they trying to achieve? What problems are they facing today? Whether or not your company has direct ways through products and services to answer these questions isn’t the key here, the key here is to be there. Be there to listen to them and participate with them like anyone else would. Not as a company but as a person. If you want to create a brand image on the web through social media, participation is a must. Social media isn’t about throwing a product with a 20% off coupon to get the sales rolling.

Let’s take an example of humanization. Dell as you all know is one of the leading brands when it comes to computers. They are one of the companies that have been utilizing the social media scene through different platforms such as blogging, social gaming, twitter, etc. Dell has quite a few Twitter accounts and as you can imagine not all of these accounts can be just “Dell.” They have actual person’s name that use these account. Lets take for example, RichardatDell. Please take a look at the image below,

Upon looking at the image you can see that this person doesn’t simply promote Dell’s products or services. He actually participates with other community members. I am 100% sure Dell doesn’t sell cowboy hats so it is obvious that there is a person to person communication going on in here that is well, personal and not business. This gives dell an edge among other businesses in social media who exist merely for promotion and not participation. This account from Dell shows humanization of company which tells potential customers “Hey, we care. We want to be part of your daily lives and want to share stuff with you just like you do. We are no different.” That is humanization. This in turn gives dell that added exposure and helps them build a community around their business.

We will cover more on Social Media Marketing (SMM) as we go. But for now if you want to market on social media just remember – Humanization.