Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 1, 2013

B4

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

 Mountain Views News Saturday, June 1, 2013 


BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques


By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA


A FEW THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT 
YOUR FACEBOOK MESSAGE CENTER

THE LATEST FASHIONS & RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

 

What do the latest fashion crazes have in common 
with popular business jargon? As I watch reruns 
of television shows that were popular during 
my childhood, I’m amazed at how many of the 
hairstyles and clothing have been repeatedly 
introduced as one of the new looks in a plethora 
of magazines and blogs specializing in fashion. 
Loosely referred to as retro or vintage fashion, it 
is nothing more than a return to a look from the 
past that has been revamped and reintroduced 
as the latest and greatest thing to wear. After 
all, there are only so many ways to reconstruct 
trousers, tops, hats, dresses and undergarments.

Sometimes the remake is actually an improvement 
due to advances in technology, for example when 
fabrics that retained their colors after being 
washed were introduced, or when an entirely 
new branch of fabrics was launched with the 
introduction of polyester in 1951. The latter was 
indeed a revolution, providing clothing designers 
with the ability to create water-resistant raincoats 
and wrinkle-free fashions never before possible. 

In similar fashion (pun intended), the world of 
business is filled with the introduction of new 
terms and concepts in research reports, news 
articles and online. Just like fashion, most of 
the fanfare surrounding the introduction of the 
latest trend serves as a distraction to the fact that 
the “new” item is nothing more than a remake of 
something that was in use more than fifty years 
ago. 

“Relationship marketing” is a term that has 
received attention in business periodicals and 
articles since the late 1990’s, and it is has now 
made a comeback as the new kid on the block 
to many readers. The term was initially defined 
as a type of marketing created from direct 
response campaigns that emphasized retaining 
and satisfying customers as opposed to a primary 
focus on generating sales transactions. A new 
and improved meaning has expanded beyond the 
original definition to encompass the adoption 

of a strategy that facilitates customer loyalty, 
interaction and long-term engagement.

These definitions are nothing more than a 
superfluous reference to excellent customer 
service, before, during and after a transaction. 
Good old-fashioned business etiquette is the 
framework within which relationship marketing 
operates. It begins with good manners and the 
development of a personal connection with each 
customer, including those online. Relationship 
marketing must move beyond the adoption of 
key words in a company’s mission statement and 
become the reality of a company’s practice.

An article in the January-February 1998 
issue of the Harvard Business Review noted, 
“Relationship marketing is powerful in theory 
but troubled in practice.” Consider the pervasive 
use of special introductory discounts that credit 
card companies or cable television companies 
offer to first-time customers, which completely 
ignoring customers who have spent thousands of 
dollars with them over many years. What does 
that type of business practice say about how those 
companies value relationships with its existing 
customers?

An online April 1, 2013 Forbes article by Steve 
Olenski about business-to-business marketing 
(B2B) referenced a 2012 quote by a chief marketing 
officer who was speaking about the upcoming 
year, “We will see the beginning of what I refer to 
as ‘the relationship’ whereby marketers will move 
away from an acquisition first mentality to a 
relationship first one. Marketers will focus more 
on the entire consumer experience to build and 
foster a long term relationship with a consumer 
as opposed to just that initial purchase phase.”

News alert! We’ve seen these characteristics 
on the runway before, and we’re elated that the 
experts are touting them as the latest fashions. 
We can only hope that relationship marketing 
will take hold as more than a passing fad.

Facebook has a powerful 
message center with lots of 
features that most people 
don’t even know about. 

• If you have a Facebook 
account, you have a Facebook 
email address. Your email 
address is yourusername@
facebook.com. These emails 
go directly into your message 
center when you are logged 
into your Facebook account. 
• You can do live chat 
(one-to-one) 
• You can video chat. 
Look for the video icon in your 
live chat box. You’ll just need 
to make sure you have a camera 
hooked up to your computer.
• You can attach 
documents to a message 
(pdfs, word, jpgs). Look for 
the paperclip icon. 
• You can message 
up to 250 Facebook friends 
or email addresses at once. 
• Facebook text messages 
allow you to use Facebook 
through text messaging on your 
phone. 
• You can message a 
business page on Facebook 
and the conversation stays 
between you can the business 
(not public). When you are 
on a business page, look for a 
button called “message” next to 
the “like” button. 
• You can send a voice 
mail message. If you install 
the Facebook Messenger app 
on your smart phone, you can 
speak your message and it will 
deliver as a recording. 


Facebook is email, texting, 
faxing, voice mail and a social 
media tool all wrapped in one. 

About MJ: MJ and her brother 
David own HUTdogs, a creative 
services business that specializes 
in internet marketing strategies 
and Social media education. 
“Like” them on Facebook for 
trending news in social media, 
internet marketing and other 
helpful tips, www.facebook.
com/hutdogs.

They love to share knowledge 
and create networking 
opportunities at their live 
events. Check out their 
schedule at: www.hutdogs.com/
workshops/schedule