Marketing Matters

The other day I was at a breakfast meeting at the Cornell Club where the topic had turned to how to use social media for business. The guy sitting next to me, who is rather successful in his field, rather abruptly announced that if he knew his insurance agent or financial advisor were “playing around at those sites” he’d get rid of them.

You can imagine the stunned silence that fell over the room for a few seconds before it got very loud. Everyone around the table had something to say about that. My response to him was very blunt: Customers are on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites – current ones, potential ones, you name it. If you have something to sell, you’d be remiss to not be where your customers are and to interact with them there. Let them talk to you, listen to what they have to say, and they’ll be more open to talking to you. Ignore them and they’ll go away and take their money with them.

Businesses exist to make money and they do that by communicating with their customers. Social media makes it easier to communicate, so it’s smart business to use it.

Personally, I’d like to think my financial advisor is smart. Wouldn’t you?