How well connected is your brand?

During our discussions over the last couple weeks about whether social marketing is ready for business, I mentioned how you can “…test the viability of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, widgets or what-have-for very low cost.” Seems like at least one political candidate understands this. Mack Collier on Twitter pointed us to an example (originally pointed out by @tawnypress) of Barack Obama using LinkedIn to engage in dialogue with constituents. This is more than just having a profile. They’re actively asking people what they think – and have gotten over 2,500 responses to date. Let’s hope the campaign listens.

Admittedly, these techniques may work better for a politician than other brands, in that most politicians are (at least so far as we can tell), real people. But, since social is about real people, you must have “brand ambassadors” or “evangelists” or just regular, old “customer service folks” (do you really have people in your business not in “customer service”?!?), y’know, real people, interacting with your customers like this. Whether your goal is to be a social marker or sell within social networks, you’ll never do it as a faceless entity. Sure, there are some risks. Maybe your return on investment will fall short of your goal. Maybe your company ambassador will become more famous than your brand.

Maybe you should be so lucky to have that happen.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and mingle, people.

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