Make A Commitment
Greg Verdino wrote yesterday about the TGI Friday’s recent Social Media campaign and was kind enough to link to my post on same. At the end of his post (or rant, as he called it) Greg states:
“Trying the tools, driving the traffic, collecting the friends, fans or followers aren’t what matters. What matters is the “what’s next.” And what matters for those of us who earn our living doing social media marketing is what happens next for us too — when we stop being so shallow with gimmicks, giveaways and poorly conceived short term tactics, and actually dig deep into long-term, commitment-based relationship building.”
I think that last line is worth repeating:
“…long-term, commitment-based relationship building.”
Greg refers to us as people who do Social Media marketing for a living and I think that is going to have to change. By putting the emphasis on Social Media we’ve made the platforms – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – the star rather than the human interaction/engagement part of the equation.
We need to start thinking of this as Commitment Marketing, with the emphasis on what the brand needs to do, rather than on where they need to do it. Commitment Marketing suggests long-term strategy and yes, hard work. That’s what a commitment is. But we also know what the benefits of making a commitment are:
Stronger Bonds
When you make a commitment to a consumer you are forging a bond that is stronger than a mere offer of a free hamburger. A commitment keeps that consumer from jumping to Applebees because they are offering a burger and a drink.
Greater Loyalty
There’s plenty of choice out there, but a commitment says, “I’m with you, not the other guy.” Even though the other guy may have an pretty enticing offer. Commitment also tells the consumer, “Hey, I’m not using you until someone better comes along, I’m invested in the relationship we have, regardless of who else comes along.”
Weathering the Storm
At some point, TGI Friday’s is going to disappoint one of the hundreds of thousands of people that have joined the Facebook group. But by making a commitment you have a better chance of weathering those storms. A commitment lasts through tough times and makes people think big picture. If you have one interaction with a consumer and it’s a bad one, that’s it you’re done. But if you commit to having 10 interactions with a consumer, you can survive that one bad experience.
Commitment Marketing isn’t for brands that are focused on next quarter’s profit numbers, or for brands that change CMOs every two years. But the question is: Do you want to have a relationship like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who were married for years and generated millions of dollars for charities by commiting to the Newman’s Own brand, or do you want to be like Lindsay Lohan, jumping from one disastrous relationship to the next, ultimately becoming more of a punchline than a serious player?
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Rick Liebling (eyecube) 's status on Friday, 18-Sep-09 13:47:34 UTC - Identi.ca
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 9:47 am:
[...] http://www.rickliebling.com/2009/09/18/commitment-marketing-not-social-media-marketing/ a few seconds ago from web [...]
Rick Liebling
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 1:47 pm:
Hey Marketers! Time to stop focusing on Social Media Marketing, and start focusing of Commitment Marketing: http://bit.ly/19oXdP
DJ Francis
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 2:38 pm:
RT @eyecube – Time to stop focusing on Social Media Marketing, and start focusing of Commitment Marketing: http://bit.ly/19oXdP AGREED.
DJ Francis
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 2:44 pm:
Best quote from that @eyecube piece is http://bit.ly/19oXdP …
David Schwab
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 3:17 pm:
Nice piece RT @eyecube Commitment Marketing, not Social Media Marketing | eyecube http://bit.ly/fA8eg
Rick Liebling
on Sep 18th, 2009
@ 3:53 pm:
@MarketerBlog & @david_schwab – Thx for the RTs. Brand marketers and agencies, are you practicing Commitment Marketing? http://bit.ly/19oXdP
Social Media ROI : Consumer ROI | eyecube
on Sep 23rd, 2009
@ 9:01 am:
[...] and I don’t claim to know the answer, other than to say that brands need to develop a Commitment Marketing strategy to match the investment that their strong brand evangelists are [...]
Commitment Marketing Update: TGI Friday’s and Chipotle | eyecube
on Sep 25th, 2009
@ 10:35 am:
[...] from Chipotle. Two and three paragraph responses sometimes. You know what that is? That’s Commitment Marketing. Chipotle is engaging in a conversation and that’s the key to keeping the community focused. [...]
Social Media Engagement: Marketers Become Measurement Platforms | eyecube
on Sep 27th, 2009
@ 8:52 pm:
[...] Group unveiled the Engagement db, which not only takes a look at how top brands are doing at Commitment Marketing, but also gives you a chance to see how your brand does against their [...]
Bandwidth Management: Social Media, Time and ROI | eyecube
on Oct 6th, 2009
@ 2:16 pm:
[...] to maximize your presence, you’re going to miss a lot of great opportunities. Social Media is Commitment Marketing, you need to take your time and really analyze the landscape. That only happens if you pull back a [...]
Listening to what you’re not hearing « Social Media Monitoring and Engagement – Radian6
on Oct 9th, 2009
@ 8:38 am:
[...] towards the positive end. Now, that won’t happen magically, you have to embrace the notion of Commitment Marketing and keep the engagement [...]
Kacy
on Oct 13th, 2009
@ 5:54 pm:
TGIFridays has continually stumbled with this campaign. From its inception, it was not using social media, but running a contest in a social media space. Fans were outraged when they reached the 500,000 fans and wondered when they were gonna get their coupons since it was before the dealine. Then, when they sent out the coupons, they were limited to four days for redemption (weekdays). And lastly, but probably not finally, so many people had problems printing the coupon that they had to resend it to people to print directly from the email client….pretty weak.
And if I hear one more person say, “At least their in the space..” I am gonna puke.
Andrea
on Oct 14th, 2009
@ 4:40 pm:
It's about Commitment Marketing, not Social Media Marketing. Great article. http://bit.ly/2IfSzN
Angel
on Oct 31st, 2009
@ 11:22 pm:
Social Media Marketing is really the trend these days. i market most of my products through social networking sites.
Aaliyah Wood
on May 2nd, 2010
@ 1:33 pm:
i have tried social media marketing for getting our new products to be known on the market. it seems to work well specially if the audience is targeted “”
awesome
on Jun 2nd, 2010
@ 1:56 pm:
Lindsay Lohan is such a crazy lady!
Alesha Dixon
on Jul 5th, 2010
@ 2:33 pm:
Pleased to hear this. Aaliyah was stunning. A celebrity I both admire and will never forget. It’s such a shame what happened to her. The original painting I bought of her is well good and will be cherished forever!
Jae Prociuk
on Apr 25th, 2011
@ 3:53 pm:
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