The Social Media Marketing Moral Maze

Nobody likes cold callers. However cold calling is still done by some companies (we had a cold call from an energy supplier just today) which means it must work to some degree, otherwise it would surely be a waste of time and money for the firm. We recently read a post on LinkedIn which was discussing if it is right and moral for companies to send unsolicited emails promoting their business and services to LinkedIn connections. This got us thinking, how can a company get the balance correct between letting people know their service is out there and available and doing it in the right way so as not to cause any recipients any undue stress or annoyance.

The Right Balance

It’s such a difficult moral assessment to make.  On the one hand, any new company has to advertise in order to make their target market aware of any product or service they are offering. Word must be spread for businesses to grow and fulfil their ultimate purpose of generating income.

Indeed, there is the argument that if a company advertises in say, a magazine with a dedicated topic, then surely as a reader (or the receiver of the marketing message) you accept that companies want to target those who are most likely to buy their product or service.  In a way this is solicited marketing.  By choosing to pick up the magazine, the reader is already engaging in the subject matter and magazines are well known and expected to show advertisements for relevant businesses.  When it comes to cold calling, it is understandable that this is unsolicited and unwelcome as there was no choice by the receiver to engage in that subject matter to start with.

Moral Social Landscape

So when it comes to social media, where does the land lay?  Our view is that this depends on which social media medium the company chooses to use. Twitter is great for hashtags and grouping together conversations in the wider public view. Facebook and Instagram are more personal and private, whereas LinkedIn tends to lean more towards use by professionals or employment seekers.  Therefore, by signing up to LinkedIn, surely the user is actively choosing to engage with other professionals and businesses. Again though, there is a balance to be had here. In our view, we welcome companies letting us know that they exist and that they want to provide a product or service to us (whether it suits us or not is for us to decide).  What we would not welcome is endless unsolicited messages pushing a sales pitch that is not relevant to us. This indeed can be annoying and truly infuriating. 

The moral maze on receipt of marketing messages on social media, we believe, is one that can be navigated with thought and consideration, as well as using the right medium.

Marketing & More

It’s been a busy few weeks since our first blog post. In that time Concordia Residential has been steadily developing as a business and starting that all-important marketing. The term ‘marketing’ fills some with dread. We have been spending some time reflecting on why those terms sometimes make people feel a little uncomfortable. Our conclusion is that it is down to confidence, previous marketing experiences (many of these could be negative – think cold calling) and whether marketing is an individual’s professional skill or not. Concordia Residential’s expertise is in property management, organisation and customer service. As such, marketing and sales are not our area of expertise but they are skills that we want to learn in order to ensure our message is effective.

One thing that Concordia firmly believes in, is the process of life learning. Education is so important as it brings wisdom, knowledge, skills and much more, which benefit each generation over and over. It’s how we evolve and it is the only way that Concordia will also evolve. Therefore its back to the drawing board for us in order to learn how to market and how to sell. We want to spread the message which will give the opportunity to ensure leaseholders get the best service.

External Leverage

Many may point out that Concordia Residential could utilise the skills of an external marketing company, and this indeed we could. However with the understanding of our industry being so niche and also with limited start up funds, we have decided the best marketing route for us at this time is to educate as opposed to leveraging out to external firms.

The Concordia Residential Marketing Journey

Our marketing journey began this week by simply thinking about how a leaseholder would find a new managing agent. This is a challenge, as there is no generically known category for managing agents. As a breed we are not estate agents, nor we are not letting agents (which seems to be the opinion of most). Indeed managing agents have a limited target market, that being flats and developments. So how would we ensure that the people who need to know about us, do so?

Not being experts in marketing, we have started with the most direct approach – a mailshot. The process of writing about the company has been fairly straight forward but does the content of the mailshot ‘sell’ the business? Speaking to one of Concordia Residential’s industry colleagues who kindly reviewed the mailshot, their observation was simple and effective. The service Concordia offers sells itself. Their view was that it didn’t need dressing up, it didn’t need a hard sell because the core services were the right thing. Honourable and truthful. This opinion was gratefully received and subsequently led to a boost in confidence.

Social Media

Furthermore, Concordia Residential have a huge awareness of the part that social media now plays in marketing. This again, is something that Concordia want to learn more about. Our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts are live now and we are sure these will develop over time as we learn more. We are confident that we are on the right road to learning how to market and sell. Here’s to more reading going forward. There’s lots to learn.