Have you ever known someone who gives a pet name to their car and talks about it as if it was a real person? If you’re like me, you think they’re slightly kooky for imbuing a pile of machinery with a personality and building an emotional attachment with it. But many businesses continue to expect all their customers to be equally illogical by expecting them to form relationships with a brand while only providing them with automated machinery in return.
Today, The Sydney Morning Herald ran an article discussing how some businesses are taking disciplinary action — including sackings — against employees for comments made on Facebook and Twitter. This hammered home the central points of yesterday’s post.
These days, it seems that absolutely anyone can declare themselves an online marketer and start advising clients on the intricacies of web marketing. All you need is a laptop and a phone line and you have access to most of the same tools and techniques the professionals use. Even better – you can pretend you understand them too.