two cents: social media in developing countries
As published on Bazaar Magazine monthly article: Loaay’s Two Cents
I’ve been reading a lot about this new ‘social media’ marketing. Can it work here in Kuwait?
A lot of Marketing Professionals say that the rules of Marketing have changed because now customers are in the driver’s seat. In the good old days when businesses show off their products and services and customers invade their showrooms to buy are gone. I don’t see that Marketing rules have changed. What happened is that Marketers have finally realized that their brand’s glory doesn’t come from how great they believe it is, but from the reaction of their customers. Think of it like art. Regardless of how talented an artist may be, if the public doesn’t agree, this artist will most likely end up working with Yan (see above) to pay rent. What’s going on now is that technology is giving customers more tools to express themselves and influence each other.
Social Media has many uses and it’s defiantly not for every brand. If your brand wants to be active in Social Media, then make it clear that you’re in it for the right reasons. For example, use Twitter.com to update your customers who follow your tweets about latest offers, important upgrades, service failures, handling urgent complaints, etc. Remember that tweets are instant. If you use it for handling complaints, make sure that you’re available online to at least acknowledge their problem and to work on fixing it immediately. Otherwise, don’t offer that particular kind of support and use twitter for something else. I don’t see facebook.com as important as it used to be, but it’s another form of communication to ‘listen’ to customers more than to ‘talk’ to customers.
In general, if your main target audience is below 35 years old and is active online, Social Media could be useful. If they’re older, they could be using the Internet on a simple level or not even active online. It all comes down to what’s convenient for your customers; not what’s doable to you…and that’s just my two cents.
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