The following comments by Doug Levy are more evidence of the coming age of social media and sellers moving outside their advertisements to touch and mingle with their followers.

By Doug Levy from Imedia

“The new model of marketing — fostering sustainable relationships — represents a meaningful change in the role of marketing. In the Consumer Era, the starting point was typically the consumer. Marketers worked to understand the buyer and become what consumers wanted them to be. The problem is, what consumers want the brand to be may not be what the brand authentically is. This causes a gap between the brand’s true intentions and how the brand presents itself — a gap that can cause mistrust with customers.

In the Relationship Era, the starting point is the brand. The brand must know its authentic self before it can engage in sustainable relationships with people. (This is similar to other relationships in our lives — at least the good ones — where it’s pretty much a prerequisite to know yourself and what’s important to you before finding a good match.)

The winners in the Relationship Era will be those that build trust and transactions, creating sustainable relationships with people.

At imc², we define “trust” as having three progressively complex components. The level of trust in a consumer-brand relationship stems from the consumer’s perspective on the following topics:

• Credibility: Does the brand deliver on its promises?
• Care: Does the brand understand my needs?
• Congruency: Does the brand resonate with my values?

Here’s how everything connects back to the three eras of marketing:

• Product Era: The focus is solely on transactions.
• Consumer Era: The focus is still on transactions, but the idea of trust enters the dialogue as a way to persuade people to transact more.
• Relationship Era: Trust between a brand and consumer is mutual. Trust and transactions are seen as distinct, and both are important.

The distinction between the role of trust in the Consumer and Relationship Eras is important. In the Consumer Era, trust was seen as a means to achieve an end, namely a consumer buying more. It’s a manipulation.

The shift from the Consumer Era to the Relationship Era is a fundamental one — beyond a shift in communication, advertising CPM models, or measurement tools. It’s an entirely new way to think about and practice marketing.”

Many have not gotten the idea that interaction with their consumer is important or that the brand does have to deliver trust. Some brands like Amazon create trust by always delivering on its promise of selection and prompt service with close follow up after the order. More firms are moving to Social Media or Face Book just to expose another face and convey a wilingness to be open and accountable. I am seeing fewer sites with out face book and twitter buttons.

Even if the efforts have not been monitized, it is an opportunity to get in step with what it feels like to set up a communication channel. This is just the beginning. If sellers are not willing to take the elementary steps, how far behind will they be in the next phase.