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Written by Dave Raffaele, Executive Director, Customer Data Management
Quaero, a CSG Solution; featured on DestinationCRM.com

For years, the stereotypical image of big business has been baked into our subconscious: Huge corporate offices, dark-suited executives, corporate jets, company cars, poor customer service, and impenetrable ivory towers have been played out in movies, television, and news media. From a customer's perspective, few of these images offer that warm and fuzzy feeling that we all look for.

Compare this image to one of your hometown shopowner. Whether it is your favorite coffee shop or farm stand, the feeling is quite different. In many cases you are on a first name basis with the owner and your kids even play on the same little league team. When you are greeted at the checkout counter by someone who still has the dirt on their hands from picking the produce you are purchasing, it is impossible not feel a connection with that business.

The personal connection that exists with the local shop owner and with few large corporations illustrates what I call the differentiator or art of being a "human" business. For local businesses, being "human" is in their DNA. For large corporations, the challenge to be "human" is more foreign.

The evolution of social media is changing all of this. Large and small businesses are beginning to realize that offering their customers a transparent two-way, a venue to offer feedback, interact with actual people, and to help spread the word about their products is just as important as getting the next email or direct mail out the door. Even in its early stages, there are many examples that illustrate how businesses are leveraging social marketing to build more honest, open, and very "human" relationships with their customers.

Expand Product Awareness by Dropping the Ego
Jason Jacobs, the founder of the iPhone application, RunKeeper, recently put his pride aside and did something bold to expand his brand. With the help of a group of students from a local university, Jason threw on some spandex, dressed up like an iPhone bearing an image of his application, and ran the Boston Marathon. The team leveraged the corporate blog, Twitter, and YouTube to tell Jason's story, raise money for the charity that he was running for and develop substantial buzz around his product.

As he ran, Jason used Twitter to share updates and pictures of his journey with his followers. By leveraging the viral nature of social media outlets, Jason was able to connect his brand with people in a way that was not possible until recently and became a great example of how to humanize a brand through social marketing.

Leverage the Crowd to Improve Your Offering
Through their culture, Starbucks has been successful at maintaining the feel of a local coffee shop and building a loyal customer base while becoming one of the largest purveyors of coffee throughout the world. With this large community of loyal customers, it came as no surprise when they decided to launch their My Starbucks Idea initiative.

Through this initiative, Starbucks is listening to the ideas of their customers to find new ways to improve their offerings. Customers are using this social solution to offer suggestions, vote on what ideas they like, help refine the idea through discussion, and track the success of the ideas as they are adopted. Based on customer feedback, Starbucks recently started to post their weekly brewing schedule so customers know when they can get their favorite blend.

Crowdsourcing is an important aspect to any social marketing initiative and Starbucks is an example how a business can leverage the power of that crowd to build their brand and relate to their customers on a more intimate and personal level.

Make an Ordinary Product Exciting
Tom Dickson is the founder of Blendtec, a company that makes industrial-strength blenders. How could you make a blender more exciting? Try making it a spectator sport. Through their Web site, WillItBlend.com, Tom leverages the viral nature of social video to demonstrate the power of their blenders by destroying common household items. Viewers watch Tom blend an array of items including iPhones, light sticks, golf balls and even the recent stimulus package.

The site allows viewers to rate or share the videos and suggest other items they want Tom to blend. By taking advantage of social marketing, Blendtec is expanding the reach of their brand by putting a passionate face to the art of blending.

Social marketing may not yet be the Holy Grail that marketers are looking for, but it certainly offers a glimpse into the changing dynamics between customers and brands. As businesses evolve within this fluid landscape we should all look forward to the new images we will all have a hand in painting while they learn the art of becoming "human" businesses.

About the Author
Dave Raffaele is the executive director of customer data management for Quaero, a CSG Solution. A data warehousing expert with more than 12 years of experience in delivering data-driven marketing solutions, he is an advocate of social media and the art of being human. He can ber reached via email at dave_raffaele@csgsystems.com or on Twitter as @daveraffaele.

This article appeared on DestinationCRM.com