The reason we chose the name True Voice Media as the name for our company, is that we felt it was in sync with our philosophy about the business opportunity in social media.
We believe that the social media revolution represents so much more than condensing marketing language into 140 characters.
We believe that social media strategy means more than “we want a facebook page.” There is something bigger here. Let’s explore it.
The True Voice
A phone call with your parents, is your true voice. An email to your old roommate from college, is your true voice. A hand-written letter to your best friend in another country, is your true voice.
These are all communications free from pretense, you have no other agenda besides connection. In these scenarios, you aren’t trying to sell anything, you aren’t trying to force anything, you are just letting the conversation naturally evolve. You listen and react accordingly.
In business, we often see these same communication channels used in a different way. We make (cold) phone calls and immediately jump into the selling discussion. We hire an email marketing company to “blast” out emails that are “personalized” because they found a way to put the recipient’s first name at the top. And we send paper mail that we hope 5% of people respond to because that would be a success against the industry average.
What if we changed that?
What if, in business, we related to those we communicate with, in the same manner, with the same respect as we would family or friends. That means listening, establishing a relationship, and instinctually listening for how you can help as you would help a friend or family member.
It almost sounds ridiculous with our business hat on, right?
Stop for a moment and put your customer hat on.
Imagine
Imagine yourself in a phone conversation with someone who is listening to you first, before trying to sell you a thing.
Imagine they reach out to you first via another communication channel that you use, say LinkedIn, Twitter or even Email and scheduled time to speak around YOUR schedule.
Imagine if their intentions were to be genuinely helpful.
How would you feel about that person versus the standard approach?
Connecting the dots
It all sounds great doesn’t it? It almost makes you want to join hands in song right? Is that a unicorn I just saw?
We’re not suggesting that business can’t be direct. We’re not telling you to stop email marketing or cold calling. We want you to question: what is effective and why it is effective? We want you to put your customer’s shoes on an walk around. When you decide to participate on the social web, be aware of what you are doing and why you are doing it. The opportunity on the social web is just like that of phone communications and email communications, make it personal. People want to feel acknowledged, they want companies to treat them like something other than a number.
Don’t just blast out content and think that is enough. Don’t just fill your posts with jargon. There has never been a better time to cash in on what you are passionate about. There has never been a better time to succeed by being smarter about the tools you use and caring more about your customer. We’re at the end of the automation era and entering the humanization era in the information age.
What people want is honest authentic caring people on the other side. You can outsource that if you like, but we think it’s better to do that in house.
What do you think? Is your company willing to use it’s True Voice?