Human Marketing
Web 2.0… I’ve heard this term so much that I feel slightly ill and cringe every time I hear it. When driving automatic cars suddenly became an option did we start calling it “the automobile 2.0?” No… it was still just the automobile, only more evolved.
Just like the internet. It has (and will continue to) evolve throughout the years. How many versions are we going to track the next several decades?! Will there be a Web 5.9?
The internet these days is about making connections, making the world a less scary place, and providing a platform in which to find, research, and evaluate information while engaging in meaningful dialogue with others.
As marketers, we are often guilty of creating labels and buzzwords… After all, that is our job sometimes. But, the internet now is more human, less about the companies and products, more about the people.
This “web 2.0” thing, (which I am going to refer to simply as the internet) isn’t for sale. Consumers don’t want to be marketed to in traditional ways, regardless of whether you have a blog or not. What they want is information that doesn’t feel like a hard sell. They want to have an opinion; they want the freedom to voice that opinion, and to feel as though they are making decisions based on their own research, emotions, and rationale.
So what is a marketer to do? Simple. What would you do if you saw an old man carrying a heavy bag of groceries struggling to open the door? You would hold the door open for him right?! (I hope so anyway). Apply this same rationale to your marketing efforts. Try the human approach, thinking more like a human, and less like a marketer.
Offer your customers and consumers information, tools, and resources that will help them, make them a better person, or make their life easier in some way. Try to touch their hearts, make them aware of their own humanity, and allow them to open up to you. Build a connection, a good old fashioned human connection.
Once you do this, web 2.0, 3.4 and 5.9 will miraculously be there to back you up. You won’t need to do anything. You’ll have an army of bloggers, columnists, and social-savvy tech surfers willing to spread the word for you. Brand ambassadors scattered throughout the globe with powerful opinions. Unbiased advocates who will spread the good word to others about what you do and how you do it.
Human connection. If you build it… they will come!
