Ever Miss a Boat?

It’s not fun is it?

Here you are – ticket in one hand, luggage in the other as you stand helpless and watch your transportation to some far-away place ride away without you. Even worse is when your business life depends on being on board – and there she goes – without you.

No, you say? You never missed a boat? Are you sure? Let me ask you this – are you taking full advantage of the social media opportunities going on out on the Internet?

Are you actively involved conversing with your consumers? Do you offer them surveys? Do you ask them their opinion on anything? Can they call you directly? Can they email you with questions? Chat with a representative of your company? No?

All right, how about this then, do you know who the visitors to your web site are? Why they came? How they got there? If they are existing customers – or did your web site convert them from a competitor? Do they have any intent to buy at all after visiting? Did they forward your web site to a friend?

Or, is all you know reflected in your useless site traffic reports?

If you answered ‘No’ to all but the last question, then you may have - missed the boat. The greatest marketing tool ever seen, ‘social marketing’ may be leaving port without you.

That’s right – maybe. There’s still hope.

Social marketing is really nothing more than old-fashioned customer service on Internet hormones.

Once marketers understand that the real power of the Internet is welcoming the consumer into business conversations, they will begin a fantastic journey of consumer immersion unseen ever before in history.

Forget panel surveys, in-home testing, and focus groups because the Internet is the biggest consumer research center the world has ever seen, and the tools of Web 2.0 have made that research center incredibly easy to access.

For instance, instead of going physically into a few consumer’s homes to observe how they interact with your products, host a two-way video session with 10s or even 100s of consumers. ”Oh my gosh, that’s so radical”, you say? Have you been to YouTube? Have you seen the insight average people are volunteering on the video web everyday?

Imagine what you could learn if those same people agreed to be part of a virtual in-home visit. The potential is huge. And, that is just the beginning.

All you have to do is accept the reality of the new world we live in. Be honest and transparent. And, above all – don’t just think outside the box – throw the box itself out the window and be imaginative.

Or, run the risk of being the person standing alone on that very traditional dock as the rest of the world sails into the virtual sunset - without – you.