Hello, corporate America. I’m a consumer. You have no idea who I am. For years, this hasn’t mattered to you. I’ve needed what you’ve produced and I had no way of speaking to or standing up to you.
But things have changed.
You are no longer the shining star of the American economy, you are a necessary annoyance we must put up with. You’re faceless, soulless and usually only donate to save money on your taxes. And we don’t trust you.
You think you’re better than us, or at least your ads seem to say that. We don’t like to be yelled at anymore, we just want to talk. Seriously, that’s it. You have people working for you, how about asking them to? There are still some people left, right?
Try Twitter. Write a blog. Produce a podcast.
You can’t ignore us anymore. You can’t pretend that we don’t matter. You can’t sit in your tall buildings and cavort with your $2MM/yr ad companies and your $500/hr lawyers without us noticing.
You’re being exposed and that freaks you out. Instead of embracing us, US, your loyal consumers, you are fighting to control your message. The more you do, the more you’ll lose.
Let us know you still like us. Let us know you appreciate us. Talk to us on Facebook, don’t buy ads. Share your stories on BlogHer, don’t hire writers. Show us that you know we’re not stupid.
If you don’t, I’m going to connect with your clients. I’m going to talk to your customers. I’m going to show them that they don’t need you anymore.
Unless you produce a good that we can’t live without, I’m going to make you irrelevant. Sure, you’ll still be in business, but I’ll have your mindshare.
Or you could show us that we matter.
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{ 4 comments }
Tyler, you're right. But allow me to say that you restated the obviousness, which is that big companies don't care about customer experience.
Corporate America doesn't give a shit about people.They care about numbers. What makes them change business models? Numbers. What do investors care about? Numbers. It's all about making it to the next quarter.
They still act like media and people can be gamed and manipulated. 99% of the “social media success stories” that companies have are all about reacting to customer experiences. This is primarily the baby-boomer generation still holds positions in high places in big companies. Once Gen-X/Y takes over, companies will evolve and come to the reality that people aren't stupid.
When it comes to big companies, they get a big fat “F” for social media or simply consumer experience. I can't recall ONE publicly traded company that I have loyalty for. That's pathetic and is a reflection of the state of American companies.
I once worked for a big company and trust me, as much as customers built the equity of the company, I was the minority who actually gave a crap about users. Naturally the overall attitude against customers perturbed me and receiving my severance check was the best thing that happened to me.
~Joe
I had my first real run-in with this today. It made me so angry that this individual, as a brand, thought that commenting or interacting with their consumers was “beneath them” and reflected poorly on their professionalism. Yet, they don't understand why their social media following isn't growing. I'm not demanding constant attention, but recognizing I'm your consumer and I'm of value to you would be nice.
I had my first real run-in with this today. It made me so angry that this individual, as a brand, thought that commenting or interacting with their consumers was “beneath them” and reflected poorly on their professionalism. Yet, they don't understand why their social media following isn't growing. I'm not demanding constant attention, but recognizing I'm your consumer and I'm of value to you would be nice.
Interesting blog post, talking about corporate america… as we go back and forth today trading tweets, you say “yeah, now is a great time to bring that up.” and i would respond, yes it is a good time to bring it up…
if you only knew what I went through dealing with that corporation during the legal process. No one pays any attention… so here we are at the SMAZ Conference, there were people listening to first speaker, who happened to be the defendant in the lawsuit I brought against his corporation… he and his company were found as Willful Copyright Infringers… this person, with 30-40 years experience as a communicator, stands before you and the rest of the audience espousing his expertise, and yet he used my photos of their CEO in 2 different annual reports… this from a company with revenue of 12 billion a year, certainly can afford to license photography, chose to TAKE what they wanted, thinking there would be no consequences… but there is no justice, only the “justice system.”
If you want more information, call me, but here is the court ruling: http://www.websupp.org/data/DAZ/2:04-cv-00621-100-DAZ.pdf
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