Name: The End of Marketing
Rating: 4.2 (233 reviews)
Author: Carlos Gil

What’s in it for me? Learn how to create an engaging brand presence on social media.

Who do you want to buy stuff from – a brand, or a person?

These days, social media makes it easier than ever for brands to connect with customers. But people have a natural aversion to being sold to by faceless, impersonal brands that are clearly just hanging out on Twitter to make a profit.

So what should businesses do, to harness the power of social media?

The short answer is: be more human. Social media will only help you if you’re sociable, relatable and not too explicit about your desperate desire for sales. A more indirect approach to selling your product will yield better results in the long term.

That’s not to say that there aren’t all manner of smart tactics you can use to hack your way to social media success. But whatever you do, you mustn’t lose sight of the need to humanize your brand. That’s what these blinks will help you do.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to develop a dynamic social media profile – without cheating;
the difference between social media “influencers” and “ambassadors”; and
how to get your employees to help you expand your online reach.

In the new era of social media, traditional marketing is dead.

Marketing is everywhere. Turn on the TV, browse the internet – everywhere you go, you’ll see ads, paid for by marketing budgets. But when was the last time you saw an ad for something, and actually decided to buy it?

Now think about this. When was the last time you bought something – like a song, some clothes, or a holiday – because it was recommended to you by friends or people you follow online?

Chances are, it was pretty recently. And if brands haven’t noticed this trend already, they need to start doing it right now.

The key message here is: In the new era of social media, traditional marketing is dead.

OK, so you want to sell your product – a pair of sneakers, say. The obvious, traditional approach is to make a load of ads, in print and online, which forcefully tell people to “Buy it now.” But that sort of aggressive messaging turns people off: nobody likes a hard sell.

What that means is, your goal shouldn’t be to “market.” It should be to get people talking to each other about your brand. The truth is, people buy from other people. And social media is an unbelievably good way to get them to do this.

The author Carlos Gil says that being sold to – at least, if it’s done right – can be a thing of beauty. Some of the best marketers he’s come across are people who follow him on multiple social media platforms, from LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook. These marketers interact with him, get to know him, become a part of his life – and they only try to sell him stuff when they know the time is right.

Say he asks for recommendations for a fitness class. Then – and only then – one of these marketers might slip him a direct message – a ‘DM’ – about their own class. And, coming from someone he knows, that’ll be a message that’s very hard to ignore.

Social media marketing needs that personal touch, that element of real human connection. It’s not about having millions of followers – especially not on Facebook, where only around 1 percent of the people who “like” a business’s page will see a post organically. Rather, it’s about engaging people, getting them talking, getting to know them.

Traditional marketing is always talking, never listening. Social media can be more effective because it’s more flexible, more personal – in essence, more social, as the name suggests.

But only if you do it well! We’ll explore this in the next blink.

Make your voice stand out by being human and getting engagement.

Have you seen the movie Cast Away? In a nutshell, Tom Hanks gets stranded on an island, can’t make contact with anyone, and starts talking to a volleyball he calls “Wilson.”

Bad social media posts can feel a bit like that – as if you’re yelling and yelling, but nobody is listening to you. It might feel like a volleyball would be great company.

The key to a successful online presence is personality.

In 2018, the well-known American chain International House of Pancakes – IHOP – decided to change things up, and rechristen themselves “IHOB.” The controversial B stood for “Burgers” – as you can guess, they were shifting the focus of their menu.

“What a great opportunity for a rebrand!”, you might think. But the chain got one-upped by a competitor. Rival burger outlet Wendy’s delivered the perfect tweet. It read: “Can’t wait to try a burger from the place that decided pancakes were too hard.”

Technology is changing everything fast. But what makes social media so powerful will always be the human touch.

Artificial intelligence is coming at us fast. In fact, it’s already arrived.

Social media managers can already benefit from plenty of automated tools, for everything from following and unfollowing, to automatically sending out DMs. Messenger bots on Facebook, though far from perfect, are a great place to start experimenting with this technology.

Key ideas in The End of Marketing

About the Author

Carlos Gil is a digital storyteller with many years of experience developing social media strategies for leading brands such as LinkedIn, Winn-Dixie, Save-A-lot and BMC Software. He is CEO and founder of the LA-based Gil Media Co. The End of Marketing is his first book.