A blog post

Why Interaction Marketing Really Works

Posted on the 07 November, 2006 at 4:16 pm Written by in Podcasting, Social Media

Scott Ginsberg explains rather eloquently why blogs, podcasts and other social media -  in other words, interaction marketing – is way better than buying an ad, cold calling – in other words, interruption marketing.

In fact, Scott says that his business grew in 2006 and he:

  1. Never made a cold call.
  2. Never ran an advertisement.
  3. Never “pitched” the media.

Reminds me of a conversation I had with someone just last week. I got a call from a woman who works for a company that lists experts in a yellow pages type book. For about $500, I would get a listing in this book for 12-months and it’s used by journalists all across Canada.

First, her sales approach was dead wrong. She extolled the virtues of this book instead of finding out what my pain points are. Second, she focused on making the sale instead of listening to the reasons why I would never buy anything in any book at any price.

Here’s how our conversation went:

“Again, why should I spend this money?” I asked.

“Well, you’ll be seen by journalists,” she said.

“Okay, well my blog and podcast is giving me alot of visibility in front of journalists right now, to the point that I have formed really great relationships with them.”

“Well, journalists aren’t really using blogs and broadcasts.”

“It’s podcasts. And that can’t be true, because according to my colleague who quoted a study from Columbia University, 79% of journalists use blogs to search for experts to interview for their articles and programs.”

(**silence**)

“Well, how about if I call you in 6-months to see where you are?”

Whatever.

I want the same results as Scott and I’m going to get it using the power of social media. I can’t talk the walk if I don’t walk the walk, right?

On top of that, I interview too many professionals who tell me how social media is helping them grow their businesses using an interactive marketing approach.

So, tell me, how much has your business grown in 2006 using interaction marketing?  

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  • http://www.foundationm.co.uk Andrew

    Interaction marketing could really help businesses operating in environments where traditionally customers have been hounded by interruption marketing. It just needs someone to take the first step, ditch the cold calling and make it interactive. But it’s still a new concept, so don’t expect business to chuck out what they’ve known to work for decades.

  • http://www.podonomics.com Leesa Barnes

    Agreed and it’s one of the difficulties I’m having. People can’t understand how building relationships using social media will help them increase profits.

    But isn’t that the essence of networking? You build trust by building a relationship and once the rapport is in place, that person then feels comfortable to buy. Using social media online is just an extension of networking 101, but instead of going to an event, you’re using an extension of your website to build rapport.

    A no-brainer to me.

  • http://www.foundationm.co.uk Andrew

    I agree entirely. The difficulty I’m having is getting people to break away from the norm and understand that new social media forms can help to build trust and develop relationships.

    I have a professional services client who I’m trying to persuade to take the first steps into blogging. The difficulty is the time and discipline it takes to get a blog off the ground, but also the fear factor of opening a channel for uncontrolled feedback.

    This is compounded by the traditional nature of the industry, where new business has typically been won from client referrals and strong relationships at the senior management level.