The Chameleon - Adaptive Marketing Ideas For Your Business

I recently had coffee with a friend to chat through a work problem:  his boss kept showing up to potentially lucrative account pitches in a rumpled suit two sizes too large and Crocs.  We’ve all heard the phrase “put your best foot forward” or “suit up” and unless the industry dictates it, a Crocs-clad foot is certainly not subscribing to those theories.  In today’s virtual society, donning your power suit is no less important, although the application is slightly different:  your social media wears the power suit these days!

As I read the menu of a new restaurant last week, I had a mild panic attack since the asterisk noted “only one substitution” per order.  I am rather particular about what I eat, so instead of doing my typical song and dance with the poor waiter about being “that person” I sat back and thought about my decision. The contemplative time with the menu gave me a chance to think about all the places we make substitutions and how infrequently we actually try something the way it was designed before making changes. 

Since Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, we are hyper focused on giving thanks, but let’s not forget about the important of saying thank you the other 363 days of the year, especially if you are a business.  As a company, you are constantly promoting your product or service through the use of your website, emails, or social media, but just “being on social” or sending emails isn’t enough.  You have to interact, especially when your customers are talking to you or about you.

My pro tip for all you businesses out there: say thank you!! If I like a product or have a great customer service experience, I like to talk about it and share it with my friends and followers.  I am not an extremist so I won’t completely stop using that product or service, but if a company doesn’t tweet back, favorite or otherwise interact with my comment, I will not recommend them, either online or in-person.  However, if a company does interact, I feel like the most important person in the world at that moment in time and I tell everybody! To ensure I am not alone, I spoke with others who agree and actually made purchase decisions recently based on whether or not their social media “family” spoke highly of the company's customer interaction satisfaction.

Yes, that’s right, billion…with a B. According to BusinessWeek, consumers spent that amount with their local small businesses last year during Small Business Saturday.  Want you own slice of "Shop Small", but not sure what to do or have the marketing department resources? Your passion is your business, and lucky for you my passion is research so I scoured the web, spoke to consumers who frequently shop local, and found the top 5 tips for success on November 29^th.

As a relative newbie to the world of Twitter, I didn’t want to actually look like a newbie so I asked questions, performed Google searches, and even skimmed a book or two for advice.  Yes I am a bit of a nerd, but guess what…you benefit, so here is the most powerful tip I discovered:

We are a society built upon the backs of those who went before us, however the pioneers of today face a much different challenge.  When Lincoln gave the famous Emancipation Proclamation address in September of 1862 announcing the end to slavery, people did not receive a CNN Breaking News alert on their phone or email.  When Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Stanton in 1851, she didn’t tweet out to her followers: “.@ECStanton, can’t wait to start the charge towards our right to #rockthevote”.  Citizens across the country heard news of those events days, even weeks later via telegraph or if they were in more populous areas, read about it in their local newsletter.  My point here is only the big news received mention, not the day-to-day activity of the President, nor the poor fashion choice of Ms. Anthony marching in a protest for women’s suffrage.  Today, as we all know, is very different. 

As I began my own journey of inbound discovery, I absorbed everything around me from books to blogs to white papers to old fashioned face-to-face conversations. While there is a plethora of information out there about inbound marketing covering a multitude of topics, one theme I gravitated towards with great passion is the generational gap, both perceived and actual.

According to the latest Fortune 500 report, only 5% of the top CEOs in place today are women. While this statistic hits home on a visceral level, we only just started Adaptive Inbound Marketing Solutions and striving for the Fortune 500 might be a bit outside our 5-year plan. 28.7%, however, is a statistic closer to my wheelhouse, as it represents the percentage of women-owned small businesses, according to the National Women’s Business Council.