Comments on: How Not to Be a Social Media Jackal

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:20:29 +0000

Thanks, Matt. Yeah, I think one of the benefits of integrative social media is being able to use media that fit the purpose. We can easily kickstart conversations on Twitter and then move to a deeper dialogue on blogs.

That whole “If you're having problems with your web hosting…” approach is little more than what we might get from a spammy blast email. We're not doing any sales listening, analysis or awareness and its likely not going to lead to a sales solution. You can only get there through a relationship. And by making the commitment to delve through the surface level issues to uncover true needs from the prospect.

All these things are available through social media, but they take time to cultivate…but then, the best sales are done that way. So very little changes. Agree?

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:13:29 +0000

Thanks, Tia. I think style and tact are exactly the qualities you have to put out there if you're going to approach a competitor's dissatisfied customer. Anything else and you'll likely have a customer pissed off at two companies rather than just one. Thanks again for adding to the dialogue.

By: Tia Marie

Tia Marie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:25:22 +0000

Chris, this is a really great article and Matt it was an interesting topic that you had originally brought up. I really don't feel that there is much wrong in approaching the dissatisfied customers of your competitors as long as it is done with a degree of style and tact.

Thanks for the great read!

By: mattsingley

mattsingley — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:06:42 +0000

Great post, Chris. We had a great conversation on Twitter yesterday, it's nice to be able to read your full thoughts more than 140 characters at a time. Good use of the social media funnel, by the way….start it on Twitter and move it to another platform that can be expanded upon.

I think your main points here are spot on. Engagement is tricky in social media, especially on Twitter where anything even semi-aggressive can be viewed as spammy behavior. I think a single @ reply is a good way to get things started, with the caveat that filling up a business account (or any account for that matter) with @s in the stream is also spammy. I've seen plenty of companies create a tweet like, “if you're having problems with your web hosting, check ours out”, then doing a copy/paste to everybody they can find on Twitter that is mentioning bad hosting. Spammy. And it violates what you mentioned above…don't pitch your service right away, develop the relationship first.

Glad to have engaged you in convo yesterday, thanks for this post.