Every marketer worth his paycheck is preaching the power of business blogging, social networking, and trying to find new and innovative ways to engage with clients, and more importantly new clients. And you know what, they’re actually right.
Take all the hype away, all the marketing pitch, and any other negative experience you’ve had with your marketing department or company, and let’s just focus on one important point. It’s all about engaging clients and prospective clients!
So a little while ago CCU_Listener (aka Companion Credit Union’s ‘We are listening’ campaign) posted a tweet about the latest budget where it was announced that the Australian Government was going to approve the proposed changes to parental leave, with a link to their blog post on the subject. I replied with a comment on the article itself and within minutes I had a number of tweets and a blog reply from one of the senior managers at Companion Credit Union offering some advice and other points that related to my comment.
In this day and age where it’s next to impossible to get your bank manager on the phone, let alone get them to express an opinion that is not directly handed down from their head office as a press release or company statement, I find it really refreshing to see Companion Credit Union to actually get involved with the community and even invite people to comment on their blog.
One can only speculate as to whether this form of social marketing is working for them, and it’s probably quite difficult for them to quantify whether or not it is working, however the fact that they are out there doing these types of things tells me that they are a forward thinking company that appears to be interested in hearing from their members.
And to me, that’s what social marketing is all about.
So big kudos to Companion Credit Union for doing this, I really hope you are genuinely listening as I think this sort of interaction is a very worthwhile venture and whilst it can be fraught with danger if it’s done correctly and openly the rewards will definitely pay off.
Disclaimer: I do not work for / with Companion Credit Union, I don’t even bank with them. This is just an observation made by someone who believes in the potential of social networking and social marketing.