Traditionally, the B2C buying process has been equated
. with emotions and impulses, while the B2B process resonates more with logical reasoning and business goals. At a recent Microsoft dominica cell phone database BizSpark event, Hillel Fuld, the CMO at Zula, gave a talk about marketing that refuted this long-held notion. Hillel, who coined himself a “Professional Noise Maker,” spoke to an audience filled with startup companies eager to learn about blogging,
Why? Because value gives people a reason to connect to your brand
This doesn’t just mean using your product or clicking on one of your social posts, it means turning a person into a loyal consumer. As an example, Hillel remarked that a few years ago, an angry customer publicly tweeted (in CAPS-LOCK, nonetheless) about a technical problem he was experiencing with the product.
Hillel publicly responded,
tweeting his personal company e-mail, and quickly reached out to the technical team. Within minutes, the problem was resolved with a simple solution – following which the customer tweeted “Dear [name of company], you are my hero.” On a side note, said customer had 50,000 followers on Twitter.
Hillel summed it up by saying,
“I took someone who needed my product and was angry, and in 10 minutes (and close to zero budget), I turned him – not into a user, but into an ambassador with an emotional connection to my brand. All I did was listen to and answer him, that’s it.” The point of the story was to show that social media is a listening medium. Platforms such as Twitter give you an ear to the world, and if you provide the right kind of value, consumers can easily end up doing your marketing work for you. In fact, social media is one of the most powerful ways to “hear” about competitors, industry trends, and what your prospects and customers need.