This was originally published in the Starguard Newsletter. For more information on Starguard Lifeguard Training Programs or Starfish Swimming Courses, please visit http://starfishaquatics.org/
Title: Are you listening or talking?
Cuts, Cuts, Cuts. It seems wherever you turn these days, you are getting squeezed from one direction or the other. The April issue of Aquatics International even ran a cover story titled “Cut Backs”. The pressure is on facility operators and owners to evaluate all aspects of their business and decide where some spending can be trimmed.
One of the first areas that is usually scrutinized is spending on recruiting and advertising. This year, there seem to be more applicants for seasonal positions then in years past, and this is making the advertising and marketing budget an easy target.
As hard as this is, it can be a great opportunity for you to really examine how your marketing is set up, and whether or not it is right for you. The atmosphere has changed. The old ways of talking “at” your employees/ customers/ recruits is over. There is a new era, and now is a time to make sure your message aligns with it.
After a recent conference, AdAge (who is the industry publication that covers marketing and media), came out with its “5 New Rules for Marketing” (www.AdAge.com ), and while not all five have direct application, it gives an interesting overview of where media and advertising currently is.
Here are a few of them:
- Listening to customers is more important then talking at them.
For years we have carefully crafted marketing “messages” as we tell our client/customer/ employee what we KNOW they want to hear. That game is over. It is a conversation, and a conversation is two way.
- You can’t separate the corporation from the brand
Gary Vaynerchuk (http://garyvaynerchuk.com/) has said that the days of multiple personalities are over. You can no longer have a work personality, a web personality (Facebook, etc), and another for your friends – you are who you are, whether it is at home, at work, or online, and your passions will be transparent. It is important you believe in what you do.
We are all salespeople, whether we sell anything or not. We – and to a lesser (or greater) extent, our company is judged by how we act and what we do EVERY time we interact with someone. There are no secrets anymore. We need to live our lives like everything we do is being recorded and will be posted online – and much of it is.
- Social Media is not a strategy
I feel strongly that EVERYONE needs to be involved in social media. That being said, what is important is your product/ business, how it is run, and how you treat people – whether they be customers, recruits, or employees. As CC Chapman said on Managing the Gray, “Social Media will not save a crappy product”. There are many tools out there – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and they should be part of the many areas you participate in, but they alone are not what is important.
So what is important? As I mentioned earlier, the “new rules” say a lot of old stuff. What is important today is what has made businesses successful since the beginning of time. Whether you look at Making Friends and Influencing People by Carnegie, or stories of how Bank of America was started, the important thing is the relationships, and today, more then ever there are tools to help you cultivate and grow those relationships.
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