For the many years, I have spent online, I have learnt this one lesson and incorporated it into my work. As digital marketing personnel with a specialty in content marketing, I am a consumer, a buyer, a spender, a client too. All of us working in marketing and communications are also a target market.

With that insight and always at the back of my head, I have realized that I have a story to tell about my experiences, complaints, and purchasing power. That when I approach consumers as a company representative, I shouldn’t forget the dynamics of relationship building and consumer behavior. I shouldn’t stop thinking like consumers and start acting like employees.

As a communicator or marketer, you don’t lure into relationships simply because you cast the bait to reel people into a conversation, nah. It does not work like that. Personal experiences and testimonials work best because they work with you too as a consumer.

Sincerity extends beyond the mere act of creating an interesting tweet on Twitter, forming a page on Facebook, or a group on LinkedIn. Being open carries a dual definition as it is a reflection of transparency. Meaning it is see-through and genuine, with each separated by intent and action.

Relationships online are measured by values, actions, and sentiments that others take away from each conversation. If you have to talk “at” or respond automatically without merit, intelligence or quality is to grossly underestimate the people you are hoping to befriend and influence. So please ‘count in online users some intelligence’

There is a difference between a community and a halfway house; one flourishes and the other will shelter transients, never growing into a thriving citizenry. Keep that in mind when creating online relationship. You need a community not a pass through motel.

So identify the connected communities and observe the themes and cultures each provides to the personification necessary to grow a genuine and equal ecosystem for dialogue for your brand and product.

Work with bringing information and solutions to people where they congregate before attempting to host their attention on our/ your terms as marketers and communicators.

Brain Solis, says the art of conversations is mastered through the practice of both hearing and listening. Use this to identify opportunities to engage, but more importantly, experience the nature, dynamic, ambience, and emotion of the dialogue in order to sincerely and intelligently empathize and converse as a peer.

Lets stop neglecting customers because we are one of them.

Patricia Kahill

Patricia Kahill is a multipotentialite Christian entrepreneur, Content Marketing Coach and founder of the Content Marketing agency, Kahill Insights that helps business owners create engaging and interactive content items for digital platforms with a focus on returning a desired outcome. Patricia was the producer of SlamDunk Basketball Talk a show on House of Talent online TV, a former fellow at Harvest Institute for leadership and now an assessor there, and an alumnus of the YELP class of 2017. A member of the BNI Integrity chapter and African Women Entrepreneur Cooperative. She is driven by passion and curiosity, been taking every opportunity that has been given to her with an ambition of stamping her footprint on the world.

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