Should the Conversation with Big Brands Be Going Two Ways?

Flashback: We were sitting in a lovely Italian Trattoria. I was hot-shot Executive Editor in my thirties with my editor team having lunch with the President of the company. He asked us what we thought of a competitor’s product.

Replies came from around the table. All responses were negative observations.

He listened without remarking until every person had finished their critiques. Then he simply asked one question, “If their product has so many flaws, why do you suppose they sell 100,000 copies of each of the 104 little book in the series every season?”

One question pointed out that we didn’t know as much about our competitor as we thought.

What about Big Brands Are Social Media Folks Missing?

After SOBCon and BlogHer and recent conversations with Becky McCray, Stephanie Smirnov, and Sheila Scarborough, that story has been coming back to me. We’ve been talking about how big brands have been going after bloggers with a clearer intent to capture our page view and sometimes even gather our ideas.

For some of us, it’s become a heady experience. For other’s it’s lead to some regrettable behavior — we all know the stories.

What stands out is that the focus seems to have shifted hugely in one direction. Sometimes it can appear as if new social media folks are only here to learn. We know the culture. They don’t.

Hmmm.

My curiosity leads me to my own questions …

If the big brands are so confused about serving customers, how did they get to be big brands?

If we only see what we’re good at fixing, we’re overlooking a huge opportunity for cooperative learning.

Flash Forward: Now I sit at a meeting table with a Branding agency, a PR agency, a traditional marketing firm, a direct mail expert, an email expert, a radio and TV person, and two other support team members. We’re writing the strategy and tactics for a huge product launch. Most of them don’t know much about social media beyond that it exists, but they know their own specialities deeply. But they build on what each other has planned and they learn from what each other has to say.

Presentation is a one-way communication. We talk and they listen. We broadcast and call them to action — in a mainstream advertisement or in a meeting, the goal is the same.

A conversation is a two-way communication. Both parties talk and listen. No one is in control.

Have we stopped listening to the big brands? Is it time to start listening again? Should the conversation with big brands be going both ways?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!