Social Media

The Diva Marketing blog has a great post today that puts social media and new technologies into perspective. From the post:

"talking with and listening to customers is Not a new idea. No matter what some bloggers may think, there were companies and marketers who cared about customers, service and doing the right thing BB (before blogs)...Blogs, wikis, mash-up communities, podcasts, vlogs, and virtual communities are vehicles that can help reestablish the corner grocery store relationship. By that I mean a time when people knew who their customers were and what was important to them. How did they know? Shopkeepers took the time to kibbutz with their customers. They intuitively understood that the relationship was the heart of a successful business. Ironically, it is these new tech tools that are the keys to opening the doors of conversations with our customers that will to rebuild an old fashion type of relationship."

There are a couple of things here that made me want to take notes. First, she's absolutely right - talking and listening to customers is not a new idea. Many times it does seem that it's an approach or skill that's been forgotten, though. Second, that she points out that blogs, wikis, etc. are tools that reestablish this idea (or the corner grocery store analogy - great example) will be helpful in explaining social media to others that aren't quite up to speed. While I understand or know this in the back of my mind, I've never seen it actually articulated like that. To me, it seems like that sort of explanation will click with a lot of people.