Are you marketing to your ego?

photo credit: Modified Enzyme

David Meerman Scott will be at the next Social Media Club Sydney (SMCSYD) event to talk about how marketers can “understand social personas and stop wasting money and resources”

David has many case studies on his blog and his book World Wide Rave, but the post that leapt out at me takes it one step earlier in the process referring to the marketplace being the outside world and not your office.

His question to all of us marketing in the new social era:

1. Do you market to your ego? Or to the external marketplace?
2. Focus on your buyers, not your bosses.
3. The marketplace is the outside world, not your comfortable office

Many large companies and those that have huge market share are guilty of these sins, whether one or all three. Smaller companies and those who live in smaller countries and market globally are the much more focused on external marketplaces because they need customers for survival. In the coming era of social commerce, the companies marketing to their own egos/bosses/offices will whither and die.

So before we even consider social personas we need to consider whether we are focusing on buyers rather than pleasing internal stakeholders. The next stage is finding where those buyers are, and engaging with them in the social channels and the ways they like being communicated to.

I’m looking forward to finding out what David’s recommendations are for understanding social personas. If you can get to Melbourne, he’s running a Social Media Masterclass