How should brands adapt their communications and engage consumers in the age of social media? Surprisingly, a book first published in 1936 best highlights how to “win friends” on social platforms, written long before Al Gore “invented the Internet.” Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” outlines fundamental approaches on how to build long-lasting relationships with friends, colleagues, and consumers.

Our team here at Acento has had the opportunity to develop a general market social media strategy for our clients. That means a lot of research, analysis, and thinking on how brands should interact with consumers on Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever new social network pops up next.

Multitudes of books and white papers discuss the tactics and statics of social media. But very few books successfully outline the psychological dimensions of engaging consumers on social platforms as well as Carnegie’s book.

As marketers, we need to appeal to the nobler interests of our fellow consumers within the social sphere (and allocate human resources to support honest, immediate responses via social media response teams).

That’s far easier said than done.

Fortunately, many of Carnegie’s principles, however basic, provide a roadmap on how we can successfully communicate with customers and colleagues on social platforms. We know we can’t push our messages out into the world anymore. It’s up to us to break away from status quo marketing and truly communicate with consumers on a one-on-one basis.

Carnegie’s most relevant principles for managing social communities include:

• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
• Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
• Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
• If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
• Dramatize your ideas.

Obviously, this sage advice and story telling requires a 180-degree shift from the marketing of yore. We need to ask questions of our consumers in order to become good listeners…and have a staff that can respond to consumers’ concerns.

In an excerpt of the updated version of the book, “‘How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age,” the New York Times published, “Messaging speed is instantaneous. Communication media have multiplied. Networks have expanded beyond borders, industries, and ideologies. Yet rather than making the principles in this book obsolete, these major changes have made Carnegie’s principles more relevant than ever.”

When I was in high school, I struggled with Spanish. No matter how much I studied, I just couldn’t wrap my head around a foreign language and, as a result, I ended up with C’s and D’s. Then came college. Ugh. Two more years of foreign language requirements and I once again found myself knee deep in… you guess it, Spanish. I somehow managed to make it to the finish line with a D, a halleluiah, and a pitcher of cold beer to celebrate. I was finally done with Spanish… or so I thought. Quite a few years later, I found myself out in California freelancing as a creative (in English) for a boutique Hispanic agency. The people were nice, the work was interesting and the food was amazing. I think it was the food that convinced me to accept a position as the agency’s first head of new business development.
Knowing little about the Hispanic market, and even less about the agency world, I rolled up my sleeves, ducked my head and charged forward. During my six years at the agency, I gained a real appreciation for the Latino culture, the people and the importance Latinos place on family. I often found myself telling my gringo friends that we non-Hispanics could learn a lot about family values by looking at the Latino culture. In the Latino family, it’s a priority to spend time with family and friends. My boss at the time was from Colombia, and I remember him saying that as much as he loved the quality of life in America, he truly missed the social aspect of life back home where people didn’t need an excuse to drop by the house and visit. Parties would often start spontaneously, and they always involved music, dancing, drinking and celebrating time spent together. Three years ago I was recruited by Acento and my immersion into the Latino culture magnified ten times.
On my first day at the agency, I was blown away by the colorful, art-filled offices which are built around a large kitchen area where everyone eats lunch together, and the conversation revolves around personal life, family, and of course, the food. There’s a real bonding among the team at Acento, a family where people work hard, play hard and enjoy each other’s company. It’s fun to invite people to our offices. You feel the Latino culture the moment you walk through the front door. It’s a welcoming place and a terrific agency to promote. Outstanding work, amazing people, authentic culture… what more could a guy want in my position?