This recent post from Social Media Guru Chris Brogan echoes something I’ve recently been banging on about to anyone who’ll listen:
For every “we” site, you now need a “me” person on the site. Why? Because we do business with PEOPLE, not with corporations. The corporations give us branding and other legal constructs, but we buy from humans.
Nowhere is this message more direly needed than in the so-called “business to business” (B2B) sector. People seem to think that if you’re “talking to businesses” your communication needs are different – because unlike human beings, businesses have (supposedly) completely rational and transparent motivations. They exist to make profits. Show them a good bottom line impact and you’ve got ‘em; anything else is pointless.
But of course you can’t talk to a business, only to a person within a business. And you’re not necessarily talking to the person who owns the business either, so the bottom line might in fact be pretty low on their list of motivations, compared to pleasing the boss, making themselves look useful, having fun while they’re at work, avoiding tedium, and so on. Emotions, people. Your accountant has just as many of them as your grandmother.
Image: fabbio
