In the following interview segment, Doug Levy, author and CEO of MEplusYOU, gives surprising advice about the best way utilize social media. The full interview with Doug Levy can be seen HERE, in which he discusses his new book, Can't Buy Me Like. In the book, Levy tackles the changing marketing space, believing that companies must either adapt or continue to put blind faith in increasingly ineffective advertising. Levy also explains a new era that we've entered, dubbed the 'relationship era', and describes how this will change marketing for all companies, big and small.
Brendan: Do you think there's one particular medium, be it TV, Internet, maybe even direct communication, that companies can best use in this Relationship Era in order to take advantage of their marketing?
Doug: I do think that social media becomes a great mechanism for marketers in this new era, and they need to use it differently than they're used to using other media. It's not a mechanism best used to broadcast a message about a product. In fact, that's how marketers typically operate. They're talking about what they do.
What we advise marketers to do, in the book and through our agency, MEplusYOU, is take a step back and get clear on why you exist, what your reason for being is, what the world would lose if you disappeared, what you believe, what you stand for.
When a marketer is clear on those things, social media becomes a great way to connect with like-minded people. Really, the whole construct of marketing is less about, "How do we go out and influence people?" and more about, "How do we get clear on what we stand for and attract people who are like-minded?"
