biggest social media marketing mistake for tech companies
Channel: Marketing Master
Date: 2021-01-06

Brought to you by https://sociplex.com

There was a time when technology companies believed in the approach of “if you build it, they will come.” That is, build the best products, and people will buy them. But the harsh reality today is: the best technology doesn’t always win the market share. One of the main reasons technology companies struggle to gain market share despite their superior products and services is because they’re still trying to sell technology to technologists—and haven’t recognized the paradigm shift in decision making that is occurring in most technology industries today.
 
This decision making paradigm shift is the continuing trend for companies to make technology decisions based on business goals and strategies—not just solely on technology plans. Thus, the decision for the purchase of technology solutions and services has broadened to a team of decision makers beyond the technologists, often including business strategists, business information directors, and business operations executives—or in the case of small and even mid-sized companies, the company vp or owner.
 
Identifying today’s true decision makers

Unfortunately, too many technology companies, rightly proud of their products and/or services, continue to market to the audience they’re most comfortable communicating with: other technologists. After all, these are often the users who “get it”—who understand the complexities of your technology and truly appreciate your innovative product features or service capabilities.
 
But the fact is, they are no longer the sole (and often not even the primary) decision maker when it comes to the acquisition of critical technology for their organization. And this is especially true if your technology solutions or services must integrate with an overall company technology infrastructure.
 
Technology Vendor vs. Strategic Business Advisor

When a technology company fails to truly understand this need to focus their social media marketing beyond the traditional technology users, this is assuming that they have social media as one of their marketing channels, they end up in an uphill battle to be recognized and known to the true decision makers in the executive offices. Companies with superb technology that for years saw excellent growth while selling to highly technical users—are now facing longer sales cycles (and faltering sales revenues) because purchase decisions are no longer being made in isolated pockets within the technology labs.
 
Because they’re virtually unknown to the business executives within their customers, they’re perceived as one of many vendors at a time when their customers are looking to consolidate their business among a fewer, more strategic suppliers—companies that are seen as highly-trusted business advisors—not merely vendors. The net result is that they’re not gaining the traction and visibility on sites like LinkedIn and via business-targeted Facebook groups they need in order to reach today’s true decision makers. Meanwhile, more savvy competitors are grabbing the mindshare of those decision makers because they are engaging audiences where their audiences are...on social media.