I was making my daily scan of the 800 some odd feeds I have on my Netvibes and ran into this article on the Ten Top Secrets to Social Networking Superstardom. The first on the list “Pull, Don’t Push” just rang so true and is what I see a lot of golf gadget and golf service businesses out on Facebook and in the Business Golf Country Club using as their form of marketing.
I get pinged all day long from people in the golf business wanting to visit with me. Being the founder of a business network understandably sets me up for people wanting to talk to the guy in charge of the club. That is fine, I like meeting MOST of the people contacting me.
However, some I find are stuck in 1980 with old traditional marketing methods that include the Push form of connecting with people in social, or in this case business, networks. You probably have run into a few of them..the people who start off the conversation with…
Glad we connected, let me tell you what I have that nobody else has and why you should want one of these…yada, yada.
If you haven’t run into these guys and gals..then consider yourself lucky and be expecting one to be contacting you real soon, especially if you are on Facebook..geez.
Failed Concept
The whole concept of social media for many of the ‘Push’ people does not make sense to them, especially in the golf industry where marketing for golf is better done offline. They are comfortable pushing their way into getting someone to write them a check so they can move on to pushing the next person to write them a check..so forth and so on. This just does not work anymore making the people using the Push marketing look desperate.
Social and Business Networking groups have become huge targets for these people who have been told or just stumbled upon these groups, that these groups are just pools of suckers for them to pounce on for a sale. This ‘Push’ behavior is what is causing so many people to leave the internet..especially in the golf arena.
Pulling is Much Easier
Naturally, the ‘Push’ method of marketing in social and business networking has to stop in order for those doing the pushing and the millions being pushed to find any benefit to being in the social or business networking groups. Recently while conducting a group discussion with several of my golf friends I was given a dozen or more reasons why this group of people very seldom go online for anything.
One of the common denominators of the reasons was based on all of these people being tired of having people contact them to only be pitched some golf gadget that they don’t need or is already available to them in another version. This groups’ attitude towards the internet and social networking represents a widespread and growing concern. This pull out of the internet by so many golfers should be a concern to the many of us out here in La-La-Land that use the ‘Pull’ method of marketing.
The Pull method really is outside the ‘Push’ people’s comfort zone but is part of the change many ‘Push’ businesses have to make if they are going to use the internet. What is at the centerpiece of ‘Pull’ method of marketing is allowing the consumers a choice. Consumers can choose come to find out what a business person offer instead of wasting a lot of time Push people spend spamming people with unsolicited information.
In the ‘Pull’ method of marketing, the mission is to reach out to the consumer thru social conversation to first show the market who the person is first. Positive images like photos of the person in their profile instead of the Logo or brand generates interest in finding out more about the person which leads to finding out the business they are in.
This positive image or personality is etched into the viewer’s memory. Even if the viewer or contact is not in need of the product or service their memory of how professional the product or service is displayed will be the subject of many conversations by the viewer with all of their contacts…for golfers, this means talks during or after a round of golf about…
Hey, did you see @mrPull out on Facebook? I spoke with him. What a heck of a guy (or @msPull to be PC)
Business people using the Pull marketing method become members of a social or business networking group so they can use their presence in the group to set up a storefront where people, the members of the group, can come by to window shop. Studies show that this method of marketing has a 90% better chance of producing a sale than the PUSH.
PUSH = FAIL
I see hundreds of peeps on Twitter every day using the ‘Push’ method of marketing…you have seen them..the people who have no conversation, make no contribution to the social or business environment, post an incomprehensible remark, then a Link to some lame article that serves their commercial needs, not the readers, then repeat this over and over.
The same goes on on Facebook and probably MySpace if I was ever on MySpace. Now LinkedIn is joining in and the ‘Push’ just keeps going on throughout the entire Social and Business Networking world.
I have had a similar discussion with the ‘Push’ people who, once I get them to drop the crap and carry on a two-way conversation, are very frank that socializing serves them no purpose. I have gotten a few to confirm that if they used the PULL method of marketing, which lets people’s curiosity bring them to their site for a review of what they have to offer, that they would not sell anything.
Usually, this leads to them also making conformation another fact as they get up to storm off to ‘Push’ someone else and that is the fact that what they have to offer is so questionable in quality or worthiness that ‘Push’ is the only way to sell what it is they are Pushing.
Push Turns to Shove
The Golf economy right now is very fragile. Every golf business is struggling. The smaller businesses are really being hammered which causes these business people to really start slugging it out in the market with the PUSH turning to shoving. Online that equates to many of the ‘Push’ marketers to resort to blatant spamming Social and Business Networking groups.
The golf gadgets, and many golf services that sold easily in the golf market as recently as a year ago are now becoming saturated online. It’s unfortunate that only the strongest will survive. This means those using the ‘PUSH’ marketing method will be the ones forced out by the consumers. Or, by the administrators of the Social and Business Groups.
Push Marketing Results in Boot Marketing
Social and business networking groups will not be able to afford to have the Pushers in their group since they will be running off the Pullers who make the group the place to be. More groups will start monitoring the network for members who Push. Boot Marketing will be what develops once the group founders and administrators see what damage that type of member does to the group. Once they remove the Pusher from the group they will then start blogging about that member or their methods of Push marketing so others an be on the lookout for their setting up shop in another group.
This change has already been put into place with the niche groups that are forming to get out of the mega-groups that are becoming sanctuaries for the PUSHER.
I suggest to the Pushers out there they may want to calm down and set up shop in a niche group somewhere then reach out to others using the PULL method of marketing. It is the only way businesses will survive…especially golf businesses. Let me know how I can help.
