Pat McGraw posted this on his site Monday:

Social media – the first law is “LISTEN”.

Based on research from CMO Council, it sure seems that most marketers are either unwilling or incapable of practicing what they preach.  (SHOCK!  I know.)

The top (consumer) expectation that comes with a “like” is to be eligible for exclusive offers (67%), followed by the opportunity to interact with other customers who share a consumer’s own experiences (60%). Games and contests are also big draws; 65% of consumers want to find them when making online brand connections, and 57% expect them from brands on Facebook.

The customer wants EXCLUSIVE OFFERS.  That could be exclusive access to a unique product/service OR LOWER PRICES.

And where are most marketers?  Lost.  Completely off target.  Wasting resources.  Missing opportunities.

Few marketers are responding to “likes” with special savings or deals (22%), special perks, or privileges (7%).

The rest of the report seems to go back to the same old “lacking resources” and “can’t measure impact” from “marketers” which tells me “stop trying to do something you can’t because all you’re going to do is fail to impress the customer!”

So tell me what you think.  If you don’t have the resources (human, technology, financial), do you try to do more and more new things?  And do you expect the customer to care that [ex] you only have a part-time intern handling your Facebook page and all that person does is post information versus communicate with the audience and really listen and learn?

Personally, some businesses need to step back and focus their available resources on areas where they can make the most impact.  Sometimes, it’s better to day a great job by focusing on a smaller opportunity that a poor job on a larger, more visible opportunity.

What do you think?

The CMO Council, in partnership with Lithium, conducted two separate surveys in September and November (2011) that produced responses from 132 senior marketers and 1,300 adult US consumers.  (You can get more detailed findings and access to the complimentary PDF file.)

Other sources to check out – MarketingProfs and Jack Loechner’s post over at Media Post.