As many of you know, I consider myself somewhat of a car guy. Over the past decade I have seen Japanese, European and Korean automakers flourish while domestic automakers watched as their share of the market continued to shrink. How did this happen on their home turf? In my opinion, among other factors, quality became secondary to quantity for “the big 3” (Ford/Chrysler/GM).
When Honda and Toyota entered the U.S. market decades ago, American automakers were at their prime and the public considered Japanese cars as subpar and not worth the investment. Jump to 2010, and the best selling car in America is the Toyota Camry (Ford still takes the prize for best selling vehicle in the U.S. with the F-150).
So where did domestic automakers go wrong? I believe they got too comfortable with what worked in the past, and relied on that past reputation to sell cars. While they rested, the rest of the world was hungry enough to continue to develop and create products that satisfied the need for transportation, but improved on that basic need while focusing on reliability and quality.
This idea of quality over quantity applies to many aspects of business and marketing, but is extremely important when it comes to how a business or organization should approach social media. There are literally hundreds of social networks out there, but that doesn’t mean that the best way to jump in is to simply join every network available.
Why not? Social media is a great way to access both current and future customers, but just like the relationships in your personal life, a few loyal friends that are constantly interacting and engaging with you is much more valuable than having hundreds of people who simply “like” you.
Start out slow and identify what social network(s) is/are the most valuable to your target audience. Focus on providing relevant and worthwhile content to your fans and interact with them! You can always expand from that point, but trying to provide that attention to many sites to begin with can quickly become both ineffective and inefficient.
Get out there, listen to what your customers want and interact! The feedback you get may not always be positive, but take that advice and improve, innovate and learn.
(Source: jaijones.com)
