A colleague of mine said to me recently that his clients had tried some social marketing techniques but they weren't working. Apparently they'd put up a forum board and had written a few posts over a couple of weeks but, since nobody was joining in, they'd kinda stopped doing it...!!!

I guess this is typical of the problem that faces CRM evangelists like me - the clients want a quick fix, an easy way to make a sale, something cheaper than traditional advertising. If they can't see an immediate ROI then there's no point in doing it. Everybody is being told how they should use digital, but rarely why and what it really does. Marvellous!

What these organisations fail to understand I think is that relationship marketing is a long-term investment, a replacement for the 'hit and hope' marketing comms of before. The web 2.0 digital toolset allows people to communicate with each other, not simply be told what to think, but they need to see that a brand is being serious and genuine before they will join in the conversation. Web-savvy punters will sniff BS a mile off and will leave well alone.

Also, you've got to give them something useful to start with. Relationship marketing works because the investment in the relationship delivers additional value for both sides; be it profit, discount, knowledge, preference, advocacy or whatever. If it ain't worth it, the people don't want it and won't waste their time!

I do understand though that these new marketing methods require a significant resource and one that is knowledgable in writing and the use of the web tools. I read yesterday that it could take a hundred positive comments or tweets or posts before generating a single serious lead. My own feeling is that as traditional ad agency activities become less profitable, managing the clients' new CRM processes could begin to replace them.

As I write this, I do think we're on the right track, definitely, but there's a distance yet between the technology, the clients and the agencies that are meant to help tie it all together.

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