In a recent and popular post Influencer Marketing: The OS of Modern Marketing (thanks Brian Solis for sharing) Pierre-Loic Assayag wrote about how marketing is being redefined under the pressure of clients and customers. His POV is founded on a simple truth; the interaction between brands and customers is changing in nature. Mass messaging is no longer trusted and brands are increasingly expected to develop personalized relationships with anyone wanting to engage with them. Building and nurturing strong relationships with the most important individuals on the social web is becoming a key starting point for brands that want to play a role in social conversations.
Relationship marketing is not a form of marketing. It is modern marketing. Pierre-Loic Assayag, Founder and CEO, Traackr
This has profound implications on the way we think about and define existing marketing activities or concepts. Here is an anticipation of six marketing buzzwords that will need redefining:
Exit Influencers. Enter Impacters.
Brands will go beyond the sterile debate on influencer scores and will focus on finding the individuals who can truly impact their business, aka the impacters – no matter what their KKP (Klout, Kred, Peerindex) score is.
Exit Social Media Marketing. Enter Social Marketing.
It's now clear to all marketers that Facebook, Twitter and family have rapidly become a new form of paid media. It's time we remember that the important word in "social media" is not "media", it's "SOCIAL". It's about people interacting with each other and building communities. It's time to think SOCIAL not MEDIA.
Exit Public Relations. Enter People Relations.
The PR industry has long been managing brands’ reputations by maintaining close ties with key media journalists. Going digital has focused so far on expanding that expertise to a selected few online, called "influencers". But scale is changing. Brands are starting to build scalable advocacy programs including hundreds or even thousands of key individuals. Building "affinity at scale" will require PR to adopt new processes and technologies enabling them to create engaging stories and content for a wider audience.
CRM has a new brother. Enter IRM.
Over the years, companies have built powerful processes leveraging privately acquired data to maintain customer engagement and loyalty in the form of CRM programs. The main limitation of such programs is that by definition, they only address your own customers or identified prospects. As huge amounts of data now become available in the open web, the need and possibility to build and maintain relationships with an open network of relevant individuals is becoming reality: Impacter Relationship Management is born.
Exit Community Management. Enter... Community Management.
Well, let's keep this word... but let's give it its true meaning. It's surprising to see how this newly shaped practice has so far taken a very narrow meaning. Community management today seems to stand for pushing content on your Facebook page or Twitter handle. But communities are all about people. Modern community managers will manage communities of well-identified people across the social web. Communities are the new segment of marketing based on people’s interests and affinities.
Has 121 Marketing ever existed? Well, it will now!
As brands develop personalized relationship programs with their most important impacters, 121 Marketing will eventually become a reality, not just a nice concept. It will because brands will be able to measure ROI by person and adapt their level of personalization to the potential of each relationship.
Social is reinventing relationships. Relationships are reinventing marketing. New concepts will emerge. New terminology will be defined. I’d like to believe that "infinite affinity" would become the new buzzword that will represent the ultimate goal of successful marketing… but that will require a new post.
What about you? What new terms do you use in your organization?