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The Social Media Revolution: How Authenticity Transforms Business
In 2017, Dave Kerpen experienced the power of social media firsthand when he tweeted about his frustrating hour-long wait to check in at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas. Within minutes, a competitor hotel-the Rio-responded not with a sales pitch but with genuine empathy: "Sorry about the wait, Dave! Come stay with us next time and we'll ensure you get right to your room." This simple, human interaction changed Kerpen's hotel loyalty forever. He's since stayed at the Rio multiple times and shared his positive experience with thousands, generating significant business for the hotel through authentic engagement.
This story encapsulates why "Likeable Social Media" has become required reading for marketers worldwide. Since its first edition in 2011, the book has helped countless businesses navigate the shift from traditional marketing to the relationship-based approach demanded by today's connected consumers. With over 150,000 copies sold and translations in multiple languages, Kerpen's practical framework has influenced how Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike approach digital engagement. Even Facebook's former CMO Carolyn Everson called it "the essential how-to guide for businesses seeking to navigate the social-digital landscape and build genuine connections with their customers."
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Listen First, Then Never Stop Listening
Remember the last time you felt truly heard by a company? That feeling of validation when a business acknowledges your feedback creates an immediate positive impression. Social media has revolutionized this dynamic by forcing companies to listen to public conversations about their brands.
While communication should ideally be 50% listening and 50% talking, most businesses historically did disproportionate amounts of talking. Traditional marketing was a one-way broadcast, with companies spending millions on advertisements while having little understanding of how customers actually felt. Social media has transformed this equation by creating a 24/7/365 focus group where businesses can listen to spontaneous customer conversations.
The benefits of listening extend far beyond customer satisfaction. When you listen effectively, you gain critical insights about product usage, uncover new opportunities, and learn which features truly matter to customers. This allows for better planning of promotions and avoiding expensive campaigns based on incorrect assumptions. For instance, when selecting this book's cover, Kerpen's team used social listening across multiple platforms to test design options with potential readers.
It's important to distinguish between "monitoring" and "listening." While often used interchangeably, monitoring carries impersonal, surveillance-like connotations, while listening represents a valued human process. People enjoy being listened to but dislike being monitored-an important distinction when approaching social media engagement.
Free listening tools include Google Alerts, Social Mention, Twitter search, Facebook search, Mention, and Hootsuite. For more advanced needs, enterprise solutions like Meltwater, Tagboard, Cision, BuzzSumo, and Brand24 provide systematic tracking across platforms with detailed reporting. When setting up listening programs, search not just for your brand name but also competitors' names and terms your customers would use (like "want to buy a house" for real estate agents).
The cost of not listening is substantial. You miss growth opportunities, damage control possibilities, and chances to improve products before reputation damage becomes irreversible. Even in highly regulated industries where full engagement isn't possible, listening provides essential information. As ethical marketing expert Shel Horowitz discovered, listening first before engaging has helped him build a reputation as helpful and knowledgeable, directly attributing 15-20% of his book sales to time spent listening across social networks.
Remember that listening isn't just an initial step-it must remain 50% of your communication process throughout your social media work. The best communicators often do more listening than talking, speaking only when they have something truly valuable to contribute. Many think they're listening when they're merely going through motions, like the date who asks "Tell me about yourself" only to talk endlessly afterward.
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Hypertargeting: Finding Your Perfect Audience
Traditional marketing relied on broad demographic categories like "women 25-54," wasting enormous resources reaching people unlikely to be interested in your products. Today's social platforms enable unprecedented precision in audience targeting that requires marketers to completely rethink their approach.
Facebook and Instagram's targeting capabilities allow marketers to find the perfect audience among billions of users. Beyond basic demographics like age, gender and location, you can drill down using thousands of interest categories and specific job titles. The platform's granular targeting extends to workplace, industry, and office type, enabling precision marketing like targeting CIOs at Fortune 500 medical companies. As Kerpen notes, "What's cooler than reaching a billion people on Facebook? Reaching the perfect 100 prospects."
While Facebook boasts 2.23 billion monthly users, LinkedIn's 500+ million professional users make it ideal for B2B marketing. LinkedIn's targeting options include standard demographics plus professional criteria like job title, education, skills, group affiliations, industry, seniority, and company size. This allows precise targeting - software marketers can reach IT professionals, financial planners can target C-level executives in specific markets.
Twitter offers a fundamentally different approach: finding people based on their expressed needs rather than demographics. With 500+ million daily tweets publicly available, marketers can search for specific phrases like "need entertainment lawyer" to find actual prospects actively seeking their services. This intent-based targeting yields highly qualified leads - as the author demonstrates with a screenshot showing three people explicitly requesting entertainment lawyer services within 18 hours.
Taking off your marketing hat and considering your own consumer experience, would you prefer broad, interruptive advertising or targeted messages that match your current needs and interests? Most people prefer hearing from companies based on their specific stated needs. Now that social networks enable precise targeting, marketers should leverage this opportunity to create more relevant, welcome communications.
The old marketing adage that "fifty percent of my advertising works, I just don't know which half" is becoming obsolete. Social media targeting lets marketers reach actual customers and prospects rather than those they merely think might be interested. Kerpen challenges readers to choose between continuing broad, less accountable media spending or focusing on narrower but more potent audiences.
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The Power of Social Network Advertising
Imagine watching TV when a commercial appears showing that your friend Megan likes the advertised brand. The next morning, you hear on radio that three friends including Megan like the upcoming advertiser. While impossible with traditional media, this social endorsement capability exists through Facebook's ad platform. Social ads are inherently more powerful than traditional ads because they connect people to their friends' preferences rather than just touting product features.
Facebook and Instagram offer unprecedented targeting capabilities that eliminate advertising waste by leveraging data from billions of users. The remarkable power of "Friends of Connections" ads allows marketing your company through existing customers' connections. With the average Facebook user having around 350 friends, even 100 page likes creates a potential audience of 35,000 people who see personalized endorsements from friends who already like your brand.
Beyond standard advertising, Facebook offers specialized shopping-focused ad units like augmented reality ads that allow users to experience products in their own environment-for example, visualizing how a piece of Pottery Barn furniture would look in their living room. Instagram allows businesses to connect their product catalog to their account and tag products directly in photos, creating seamless shopping experiences.
Many companies fail with social ads by pushing direct sales, forgetting that users are there to socialize, not shop. The successful formula builds rapport first: serve engaging content, encourage page likes, foster community interaction, and create relationships before selling. This approach recognizes that social platforms require social engagement before commercial transactions.
LinkedIn's 500+ million user profiles offer access to business-focused professionals through targeting criteria including industry, job title, seniority, skills and group affiliation. Their Sponsored InMail format creates person-to-person connections by sending personalized messages from individual profiles rather than faceless organizations, bringing transparency and accountability to B2B marketing.
Twitter's advertising models include Promoted Tweets, Trends, and Accounts that place content in front of users discussing specific keywords. Unlike Google's search-focused model, Twitter ads join conversations already happening, becoming part of relevant discussions rather than interrupting them.
Social network ads transcend traditional advertising objectives by generating lasting connections. While traditional ads merely raise awareness or drive immediate purchases, social ads create ongoing relationships through likes and follows that enable continued engagement for potentially a customer's lifetime.
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Think and Act Like Your Consumer
Most advertising is unwelcome interruption. From pop-up banners to telemarketing calls, consumers universally dislike being disrupted. When asked at conferences, audiences rarely admit to enjoying radio or TV commercials, yet 60-90% enjoy social media. This isn't just because social media is new-it's because people fundamentally want to use media to relax and connect with others without interruption.
HubSpot's Laura Fitton summarizes effective social media strategy in two words: "Be useful." Before sending any message, ask yourself: Will recipients truly find this valuable or just annoying? Would I want to receive this as a consumer? Only send messages that pass these tests.
Facebook's News Feed algorithm revolutionized content filtering by promoting engaging content and suppressing ignored posts. Unlike traditional advertising where all messages reach everyone regardless of interest, Facebook created a system that rewards content people genuinely want to see. In 2018, Facebook shifted from serving "relevant content" to generating "meaningful social interactions," prioritizing posts that inspire discussion and connection. This forces brands to create content that sparks authentic engagement rather than simply broadcasting marketing messages.
Instead of telling fans what to like, smart marketers ask what their consumers actually enjoy. Traditional marketing messages and corporate announcements rarely generate positive engagement, while content focused on customers' interests thrives. The goal is winning mindshare by becoming part of consumers' conversations rather than interrupting them.
The Pampered Chef entered Facebook after competitors had established presences, but without budget for ads, they strategically focused on consumer-centric content. Rather than promoting products, they shared recipes, hosted contests, and encouraged fans to post their own culinary creations. This approach generated hundreds of comments and likes per post, keeping TPC at the top of fans' News Feeds. The strategy attracted over 100,000 fans in just two months without paid advertising, driving significant engagement and sales.
In a world saturated with marketing messages, the opportunity lies not in creating more creative disruptions but in producing content people actually want to receive. The competition for attention isn't just with industry rivals-it's with personal content like baby pictures from friends. Being likeable, not just visible, is the key to social media success.
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Invite Your Customers to Be Your First Fans
When starting social media accounts for your business, gaining followers isn't automatic regardless of company size. Many large brands with substantial marketing budgets struggle with minimal social media presence. Today's internet users don't endlessly surf the web-they access information through personalized social media filters and mobile apps. People unfamiliar with your brand are unlikely to be your first followers. Instead, your strongest assets are existing customers, staff, partners, and vendors.
Fifteen years ago, website traffic relied on marketing initiatives and links. Today, the Facebook "like" has become more valuable than links. When someone likes your page, they subscribe to your updates permanently (unless they unsubscribe) and simultaneously endorse you to their average 350 friends. This creates exponential exposure that traditional website visits can't match.
To get Facebook likes, you must provide a clear value proposition to your audience. Don't just ask people to like you-tell them what's in it for them in customer-centric language. Compare "Like us on Facebook now" versus "Ask us your social media questions anytime." The second approach generates more action because it focuses on customer benefit rather than your brand. Integrate your value proposition across all customer touchpoints: your website, company emails, staff email signatures, business cards, brochures, receipts, mail, phone calls, product packaging, and in-store signage.
The traditional focus on driving immediate sales through web and email marketing should be reconsidered in light of social media's long-term value. E-commerce sites optimized for likes rather than immediate purchases create permanent records of visitor interests, enabling friends to see products their connections have liked-perfect for gift purchases. For professional services like doctors and lawyers, likes function as the new referral system.
Dr. Ed Zuckerberg (father of Facebook's founder) proves any business can benefit from social media. His dental practice uses multiple touchpoints to convert patients into Facebook fans: waiting room signage saying "Like us? Then Like us on Facebook," email appointment reminders inviting patients to ask questions on Facebook, and phone invitations for new patients to check out staff bios on Facebook before visits. These efforts gained over 50,000 Facebook likes and generated dozens of new patients through friend referrals, demonstrating social media's effectiveness even for traditionally word-of-mouth businesses like dentistry.
Glossier, one of the fastest growing beauty startups, emerged from social media when founder Emily Weiss launched the blog "Into the Gloss" in 2010. After amassing 10 million monthly page views, Weiss leveraged her engaged audience's feedback to launch Glossier in 2014. The brand relies heavily on "regular" women as influencers rather than just celebrities. These "Glossier girls" may individually have small followings, but collectively create a substantial audience that promotes the brand.
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The Art of Meaningful Engagement
Just as engaging university classes provide more value than large lectures, companies that use social media to meaningfully engage customers rather than just talking at them will stand out. Organizations that foster dialogue not only between themselves and consumers but also among consumers will reap the greatest benefits in our connected world.
The modern model of customer engagement differs dramatically from past marketing approaches. Like the difference between talking to a baby versus conversing with an older child, traditional advertising (like TV commercials) simply talks at customers, using humor or surprise to elicit reactions. But social media enables true two-way communication. Companies that engage in real conversation rather than just broadcasting messages will win over audiences.
Being truly engaged means genuinely wanting customer feedback of all kinds and providing full attention to customers while maintaining your organization's mission and values. This requires authentic belief that social network activity leads to deeper customer relationships. Most companies start with good intentions to solve problems, but as they grow, they often drift from authentically caring about customers. Organizations must honestly assess whether they're more like the disengaged professor lecturing or the engaged teaching assistant facilitating discovery together.
When you commit to listening to and engaging with customers, you foster genuine trust and loyalty. Like a small discussion class where all opinions are respected and dialogue is encouraged, creating an atmosphere of respect builds a community where people feel safe to speak up. In engaged communities, customers help each other. When you create spaces for questions and feedback, customers appreciate timely, authentic responses. As trust builds, community members begin answering questions for newcomers and defending your company against complaints without prompting.
Despite its benefits, true engagement is difficult to implement, especially in larger organizations where senior managers must fully commit to customer interaction and community building. While not being engaged won't immediately devastate your company, in our transparent social world, one horrible customer experience can erode your reputation and bottom line. The "United Breaks Guitars" incident demonstrates this risk-when United Airlines refused to replace singer Dave Carroll's broken guitar, his viral video garnered millions of views, caused a 10% stock price drop worth $180 million, and permanently damaged the brand's reputation.
Engagement is even more crucial for nonprofits and governments than for companies. Social media provides these organizations with unprecedented ability to build movements online, raise funds, and effect change efficiently. The New York State Department of Health's "Take Control!" program exemplifies this approach-rather than using traditional advertising to reach teens about sexual health, they created a Facebook community where teens could interact authentically. The page evolved from a marketing channel into a genuine community where 30,000 teens discussed safe sex, relationships, and health resources with each other.
Becoming more engaged with customers begins with a single person taking one action. Even if you can't transform your entire company overnight, you can take steps toward fostering better dialogue between your brand and customers. Like a relationship, social media engagement requires commitment, but the rewards of authentic connection make it worthwhile.
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Responding to All Comments: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
When launching social media channels, companies often worry about handling negative comments. If you're not prepared to respond to criticism, you're not ready for social media. Today's comment cards exist as Facebook posts, tweets, and online reviews-making consumers the most empowered in history. While this shift in power frightens many executives, attempting to control or delete negative feedback only worsens the situation.
The do-not-delete rule states that unless a comment is obscene, profane, bigoted, or contains private information, it should never be removed from social media. Deleting legitimate complaints is like ripping up a comment card in a customer's face-it communicates profound disrespect and often escalates the situation. When a customer's criticism is deleted, they may become more determined to be heard, potentially creating anti-brand groups, videos, or hashtag campaigns that reach thousands.
The second common mistake companies make is ignoring negative comments, hoping problems will disappear or fearing that acknowledgment might encourage more complaints. This approach is like putting a customer on hold indefinitely while others watch. By not responding, you broadcast that customer opinions don't matter-a dangerous message that damages your reputation.
The effective approach to handling negative comments is responding quickly and publicly, then moving the conversation to a private channel. A public acknowledgment shows everyone that you listen and care, while addressing specific details privately prevents a prolonged public exchange. Personalize responses by using the customer's name, apologize sincerely, and provide clear next steps for resolution.
Many legal departments resist allowing marketers to apologize on social media, fearing liability. However, saying "I'm sorry" can diffuse potentially hazardous situations without admitting wrongdoing. Effective apologies include phrases like "I'm sorry you had this experience" or "We're sorry you feel this way." Beyond apologizing, companies must actually fix the problem, requiring marketing and customer service teams to work together seamlessly.
Effectively resolving customer complaints can transform critics into advocates. The Verizon FiOS case demonstrates this transformation perfectly: an extremely angry customer who initially posted "You guys Suck!!! And a lawsuit may be in your near future" became a passionate supporter days later after receiving prompt attention. After Verizon resolved his billing issue, Ray returned to post effusive praise: "I love the FiOS service and the Extreme Internet package makes me jump up and down every time I download anything."
Going beyond simply fixing problems can transform negative situations into positive marketing opportunities. Companies should consider creative ways to exceed customer expectations when resolving complaints-whether through bonus gifts, unexpected refunds, or special discounts. 1-800-Flowers.com implemented a strategic approach to handling complaints during critical holiday periods like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. They staffed their Facebook community 24/7, committed to responding within an hour of any complaint, and deliberately over-delivered with larger bouquets than complainers had paid for.
Most companies vigilantly monitor negative comments but ignore positive ones-an approach as absurd as turning away from a customer offering praise in your physical store. Simple acknowledgment of positive feedback shows customers they matter and that the company is listening. The words "Thank you" are powerful, especially when personalized to reflect the brand's unique personality.
Every business has die-hard fans who love your organization unconditionally-these brand ambassadors represent your "quan" (love, respect, community, and dollars). They're already willing to spread the word about your company without incentives, but their advocacy becomes more powerful when you actively encourage it. Identify ambassadors with substantial online influence, then reward them with incentives, special perks, and exclusive content.
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Authenticity: The Foundation of Trust
Authenticity has become increasingly rare in customer service as companies grow and implement standardized scripts and processes. While these efficiency measures might streamline operations, they create barriers between companies and customers by removing genuine human interaction. Social media offers an opportunity to reverse this trend by allowing companies to "be human" in their customer interactions.
Traditional marketing resembles a Broadway musical-scripted, polished performances with expensive production values designed to dazzle audiences. Social media marketing should be more like improv comedy-responsive, flexible, and built on genuine audience interaction. While musicals follow the same script night after night, improv creates unique experiences based on audience suggestions. Your brand needs this improvisational mindset-building a team that can authentically engage rather than "putting on a show."
Traditional advertising has focused on creating distractions to grab attention, but today's consumers expect human-level authenticity in all interactions. Your organization must convert corporate mission statements into genuine conversations that reveal your brand's personality while demonstrating care for consumers. This requires balancing corporate guidelines with authentic communication-overly regulated speech will appear impersonal and untrustworthy.
Share occasional glimpses into your organization through photos and videos of your team and workspace on platforms like Snapchat or Instagram Story. Monthly smartphone videos featuring different departments, staff members, or executives answering simple questions can humanize your brand. Share casual content from company outings, new location openings, or "insider views" of operations to build customer trust.
In personal relationships, we're naturally drawn to people who share their true selves, admit flaws, and communicate openly. We instinctively distrust those who seem artificial or withholding. This same dynamic applies to brand relationships on social media. Organizations that connect authentically build trust and encourage deeper customer relationships, while those using highly produced content or scripted responses breed mistrust.
B1Example, a violence prevention project by Boston Public Health Commission, took the bold step of recruiting and training 10 Boston teenagers to run their social media channels rather than having government officials or agency professionals manage communications. This decision prioritized authenticity over polished messaging, recognizing that urban teenagers would trust peers more than adults when discussing issues like staying in school or avoiding violence.
Organic Valley demonstrates authenticity by giving customers direct access to their farmers through social media. Their "Farm Cam" program on Facebook shares unfiltered behind-the-scenes content from their farms, while "ask me anything" sessions on Facebook Live enable direct communication between customers and farmers. On Instagram, they feature farmer takeovers rather than influencer promotions, allowing customers to interact with named individuals like "Peter" rather than a faceless organization.
People can distinguish between authentic communication and marketing-speak online just as easily as they can spot insincerity at a cocktail party. Robotic or scripted social media interactions will alienate your audience despite your best intentions. Being real, authentic and human in your interactions builds trust with customers and prospects, encouraging them to buy from you and, most importantly, share your content with their friends.
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The Power of Questions and Value
Questions naturally elicit responses, while statements often don't. When social media managers complain about low engagement, the solution may be as simple as asking questions instead of making declarations. Traditional advertising has limited time and space to deliver messages, forcing marketers to tell customers what to think. Social media reverses this dynamic-with unlimited space and time, brands can ask genuine questions, listen to answers, and shape perceptions accordingly.
Questions create marketing value in four key ways: they help guide social media conversations without appearing forceful; they position you as consumer-centric rather than brand-centric; they demonstrate that you value openness, honesty, and feedback; and they show genuine care about customer opinions. By building emotional connections and generating discussions about customer pain points and needs, questions increase your mindshare, making customers more likely to choose your products when needed.
Beyond marketing value, questions provide incredible customer insights without the expense of traditional research methods. Social networks function as living, breathing focus groups once you've built a following. Instead of spending thousands on formal research, you can directly ask your online communities about products, services, perceptions, competitors, and more.
Research at Likeable Media revealed that in 90 percent of cases, Facebook status updates posing direct questions had interaction rates above average for informational posts. Posts exclusively about the company without questions were below average 100 percent of the time. Question-based posts generated up to six times more engagement than straight informational posts.
Crowdsourcing outsources tasks traditionally done by employees to a large community through an open call. Its three-fold benefits include finding great solutions from customers, tapping into collective wisdom, and creating vested interest among potential customers. It's the ultimate question: "We have a challenge. Can you help?" Auntie Anne's leveraged this by asking fans to suggest new pretzel flavors, generating 1,200 suggestions and 1.3 million participants who voted for Sriracha as the winner. This approach cost less than traditional R&D while creating a built-in audience for the new product.
Sharing valuable content with fans and followers builds trust and reputation. For example, an accounting firm might share "Top 10 Tax-Saving Strategies" without promotional calls-to-action. Even without explicit marketing, prospects can easily find contact information when they're ready. You don't need to create all content yourself-sharing helpful articles from others (with proper credit) also provides value.
Creating and sharing valuable content builds reputation and generates returns only through consistent effort and commitment. Trust isn't established immediately-it requires repeated contact over time. Many organizations give up when they don't see immediate ROI. Organizations that commit to regularly delivering value will succeed; those putting in minimal effort will fail.
Though marketers often use phrases like "valuable coupons," there's a crucial difference between marketing offers and truly valuable offers. Ten percent off isn't real value-it's marketing. Five percent is insulting. Even fifteen percent may not be perceived as valuable depending on your audience and product. Free is always best-whether it's a white paper, game, sample, or gift with purchase.
Companies have traditionally sought immediate returns for providing value. The challenge on social media is providing valuable content-information, entertainment, or applications-without expecting immediate reciprocation. While some people who receive your free content won't become customers, others will appreciate what you offer, share it with friends, and become customers themselves.
