The value of sharing knowledge, even when it’s not about your product

by drm on February 18, 2010

Over the past year, I’ve been encouraging our teams to have gain expertise about social media and have conversations with their customers about how these new tools can help them in their business.

Where I’ve met resistance is from people who ask, Why? Our business is advertising, and we’ve got print and internet products to sell. Talking about social media is off-point and doesn’t help.

My counter is that if we know a lot about something that our customers care about, we can help them, and that’s going to help us get into more conversations and have better relationships. And, I know from all my conversations that our customers and prospects are fascinated and perplexed by how to use social media tools in their business.

I found a useful passage in the conclusion of an industry report from Borrell Associates about real estate advertising that helps drive this point home.

Local media companies that can demonstrate a commitment to understanding their local markets more deeply than their competition, and a willingness to share that knowledge with local advertisers in a consultative relationship that is built patiently, with trust and respect, for the long term, will have the best chances for success. When a business is hearing from half a dozen ad media reps every month, it will take unprecedented focus, effort and resources to stand out.

Reading that made me ask myself, How many of our market representatives see the same value in sharing knowledge? And, how many of them feel confident about their own command of the information to share it with customers and prospects?

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  • UrbaneWay

    Hey Dan,
    I think there is another piece to this puzzle, and what sometimes becomes a dilemma inside organizations and or with individuals with a closed, or more over a fearful mind set, is the fear of giving something of value away.

    Today, Sharing things with our Circle of Influence blurs the lines more than ever regarding proprietary information, or alleged trade secrets or at least folks perception of that.

    A personal example, several years ago, before blogs were around, I really wanted to write. At the time I read Professional Builder cover to cover every month, as we were building several thousand apartment units each year. I mustered up the courage to send a few draft articles to the editor. To my surprise, I got a note back from her to meet up at an upcoming NAHB event we were both attending. To make a long story short, I got an invitation to write a monthly guest article on multifamily apartment construction. I was pretty thrilled, until such time as my employer promptly squashed the idea, citing they didn't want folks on the “outside” knowing what we were up to. I was pretty disappointed.

    While there are certainly things and business affairs that are not appropriate for public consumption, and the topic of transparency has equally become rather blurred as well. The advent of blogs, and social media has made sharing mainstream, and my belief is that I have gained ten fold with things I have shared. I have gained significant direction and a much deeper knowledge from readers and followers for some of the more complicated problems I have grappled with by writing and blogging what I am thinking about.

    I have fully documented almost every single idea we have ever implemented at our apartment business, so all anyone has to do, should they want to implement something is read the blogs, but with each post, and further each comment, it propelled me to the next vantage point.

  • http://SweetTea-StraightTalk.com Kathy Drewien

    Being knowledgeable about social networking tools is not enough. My skill set must reach beyond the “how-to” of the tools. It's imperative I understand the foundational constructs of business marketing and the costs of social business marketing prior to integration.

    – Why do my customers want to change their marketing mix?
    – Is social networking the right strategy? At this time?
    – Are their customers online? Where?
    – What expectations do my clients have? Of social media? Of me? Of change?
    – How much time – daily, weekly, monthly – are my client's willing to invest in a social business campaign.

    If social networking tools are the answer, any kid in middle school could launch a campaign.

  • UrbaneWay

    Hey Dan,
    I think there is another piece to this puzzle, and what sometimes becomes a dilemma inside organizations and or with individuals with a closed, or more over a fearful mind set, is the fear of giving something of value away.

    Today, Sharing things with our Circle of Influence blurs the lines more than ever regarding proprietary information, or alleged trade secrets or at least folks perception of that.

    A personal example, several years ago, before blogs were around, I really wanted to write. At the time I read Professional Builder cover to cover every month, as we were building several thousand apartment units each year. I mustered up the courage to send a few draft articles to the editor. To my surprise, I got a note back from her to meet up at an upcoming NAHB event we were both attending. To make a long story short, I got an invitation to write a monthly guest article on multifamily apartment construction. I was pretty thrilled, until such time as my employer promptly squashed the idea, citing they didn't want folks on the “outside” knowing what we were up to. I was pretty disappointed.

    While there are certainly things and business affairs that are not appropriate for public consumption, and the topic of transparency has equally become rather blurred as well. The advent of blogs, and social media has made sharing mainstream, and my belief is that I have gained ten fold with things I have shared. I have gained significant direction and a much deeper knowledge from readers and followers for some of the more complicated problems I have grappled with by writing and blogging what I am thinking about.

    I have fully documented almost every single idea we have ever implemented at our apartment business, so all anyone has to do, should they want to implement something is read the blogs, but with each post, and further each comment, it propelled me to the next vantage point.

  • http://SweetTea-StraightTalk.com Kathy Drewien

    Being knowledgeable about social networking tools is not enough. My skill set must reach beyond the “how-to” of the tools. It's imperative I understand the foundational constructs of business marketing and the costs of social business marketing prior to integration.

    – Why do my customers want to change their marketing mix?
    – Is social networking the right strategy? At this time?
    – Are their customers online? Where?
    – What expectations do my clients have? Of social media? Of me? Of change?
    – How much time – daily, weekly, monthly – are my client's willing to invest in a social business campaign.

    If social networking tools are the answer, any kid in middle school could launch a campaign.