I'm moderating a round table on Social Media tomorrow at the Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto. So I've been thinking about what people might want to talk about. But first, I realised, we need a good working definition of "Social Media".
There are a lot of them out there .. but they are more about the *media* (blogs, podcasts, etc) than the *social*. Even a recent talk I gave focused on this aspect. I want to help marketers go deeper. This isn't about the technology we use. It's attitudinal. It's a fundamental shift in how we treat, regard and respect our customers. So, here's today's working definition (remember - this is targeted to marketers):
Social Media -- marketing initiatives where customers are at the heart of the conversation.
Two things. Customers are at the core. It's a conversation.
I also like the heart bit (though do marketers remember what that is??).
What do you think? I need something simple to convey to the marketing community that Social Media are not just new shiny tools, but, rather, to indicate that a fundamental sea-change has occured in our relationship with customers.
On the "tapping into the cosmic brain vibe front", Tara posts on a related topic - about as an agency, she loves her clients, but loves her clients' clients even more. Amen.
Photo credit: floating heart by davebushe on flickr
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