Batman had Robin. Andy Taylor had Barney Fife. Johnny Carson had Ed McMahon. The Lone Ranger had Tonto, Paul Simon had Art Garfunkel, Charlie Brown had Linus, and Dr. Frankenstein had Igor. We call them sidekicks. They don’t have enough star power to stand alone, but in a duet where they play second fiddle to the main character, they enhance the effectiveness of the team.

I have a question for you: is marketing the sidekick to sales? Traditionally, the answer to that question has always been yes. Marketing was the subordinate of sales, upon which the entire organization depended to stay afloat. However, in recent times, marketing has taken on a life of its own, particularly in the area of social media marketing. Skeptical of slick marketing campaigns contrived behind mahogany boardroom doors, patrons of social media pooh-poohed anything that smacked of corporate marketing in lieu of consumer driven social media posts. They wanted content marketing: advice devoid of anything that sounded like an advertisement. Traditional marketing that was driving you to make a purchase was "fake news.” They didn’t want to talk to a salesman who would only push the key features of a product, but downplay the flaws. They wanted transparency and grass roots interaction with manufacturers of the products and services they wanted to buy. Content marketing was only good when it was stripped of a sales pitch. Believable marketing should be operating as a solo act.

But how do you sell anything when you cannot use marketing to drive people to a sale? The short answer is, you can’t do it. What we are experiencing in social media marketing is really nothing new, it just is using a medium that reaches a large number of consumers in a short amount of time. Consumer posts are nothing more than testimonials, which have been around before Burma Shave started posting signs on state highways. And content marketing – items like blog articles and case studies – have been used before as well. Before there was social media, there were trade publications where "experts” shared advice with consumers of their products and services. The "free” expert advice is used to gauge interest within a target market. It simply qualifies those who are ready to investigate making a purchase from those who are not. We used to call this a qualified lead.

How do you make social media marketing work like real marketing – that which is leading to a sale – instead of wasted motion? First, make sure you really are listening to your customers and responding to what they say. If they love everything you are doing, wonderful! Ask them to give you a testimonial on your social media sites. Many companies prompt their satisfied customers to do this with some sort of reward, such as a discount towards their next purchase. If they are not happy, do everything you can to make it right. Fix their problem and you will escape the wrath of a disgruntled customer posting on your social media sites.

Second, take advantage of content marketing by focusing on problem and solution stories from real customers. Tell how your products or services functioned in a real situation to make life easier for them. This is a subtle way of advertising your services without using a hard sell approach. It is backed up by a real experience, and you may want to quote the customer whom you helped, or at the very least, get them to engage with the social media content.