This is a collaborative post, written with John Twohig. There’s a lot of chatter in social media circles that use sexual innuendo’s to entice a baby boomer, gen x, and gen y’er to engage in the latest new product being pushed by some aggressive social marketer.
Funny thing is that some of the social marketing techniques work – some of the time – and some of them work – well, not so well a lot of the time. Aggressive social marketers think that linking the sale of their product to sex will help them achieve a long term customer relationship? And the results are usually not positive.
Research on Sex in Sales
You see if these social marketers did more effective research into the interests of the millennial group – generation x and generation y folks, and baby boomers – they may realize that there are more effective ways to engage this target group in social media circles – and it doesn’t rely on a sexy sales pitch.
- For instance – there is a ton of data on what the millennial group looks at online as well as what baby boomers look at online.
- Is it worth it for these marketers to access this data to see what they are looking at and what they are buying?
Related: The Multi-Device Digital Omnivore: The Online Future In Focus
Online Marketing is Powerful – Done Right
What is clear to the social marketers that have gained an understanding of online marketing is, it is a powerful force.
- When the online community, which is largely made up of generation x and generation y, is intrinsically motivated to express their interest in your product/service, it will drive online engagement. And baby boomers are catching up fast.
- This engagement takes place due to people, people that find the dynamic content which the enlightened social marketers are sharing online. The research shows that this engagement is at its highest when that content has an edutainment thread.
Related: The Holy Grail of Online Engagement (In 15 Steps)
Social Business – A New Online Model
Human behavior dictates the success of online social marketing, this is only now registering with companies and this new online model is called Social Business. The old marketing model is broken and the social online community members are now setting the agenda. Traditional marketers are not dealing well with this.
We are currently at the start of a revolution, a revolution into the biggest increase in communication since the invention of the printing press. Social Business allows business to leverage and optimize this communication revolution.
- Mankind has never had the platform to express itself with the ease that social platforms allow. When people join these platforms they become both digesters of content and creators of original content. With nearly 2 billion people on these social platforms that is going to be a lot of original content.
- The social marketers’ job is to harness this willingness of the online community to express themselves. The Social Business model allows business/organizations to leverage these intrinsically motivated communities.
Related: Ford’s Social Business Model, Seeks Multi-Directional Expressive Capability!
Does sex sell? Yes. Is it going to be part of social marketing? Yes, but that will be too limiting on social campaigns. What will work better? Social marketers understanding how to interactively engage millennials’ and others in the online community (baby boomers for instance). Let the games begin.
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