I recently discovered the below image from Deborah Schultz’s blog where she wrote about the importance of relationships and its impact on branding. I agree with her position that it’s not necessarily about marketing but how you relate to your customers.

To me, this is a clear representation of how social media differs from that of traditional media; direct marketing, advertising, public relations and its overall impact on branding.

As I mentioned many times before, consumers are tired of being marketed to. They are fed up with the millions and millions of marketing messages that are thrown in their faces and computer monitors everyday. And, even when these messages are coming from a third party (Cnet, Techrunch, NYTimes), there is still no guarantee as to the authenticity of the message.

And…as I continue to repeat myself again and again, consumers are talking.They are having conversations online and offline about brands. They are sharing their experiences with each other; and they are either praising your brand or tearing it a apart like a pit bull. And, it’s almost a guarantee that if it’s the latter, they are telling more than one person about it. This is the kind of viral marketing that you don’t really want to be viral.

We all know that social media is new and changing everyday; but one thing is for certain. There are conversations going on right now about your product, service, brand, your CEO or whoever. Are you listening? Are you going to join the conversation? Because if you do, it’s quite possible that great things may lie ahead!

Image Disclosure: The first image was recreated from here; which originated from here. I created the second one.

Technorati Tags: social media, conversational marketing