Talking billboards are key to building lasting relationships with customers

Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by PartnerUp.

What if a billboard started talking to you?

Better yet, what if you started talking back to the billboard?

Even better than that, what if you and the billboard talked to each other over a long period of time and had real conversations?

Isn’t that kind of the way social media for business is? Or at least the way it should be?

You see, an actual billboard is representative of traditional media marketing. You drive by and you see the image and the message, or you hear the commercial on the radio or flip through the ad in the magazine. There’s no interaction there and no real relationship built between you and the business that’s trying to reach you.

On the other hand, the talking billboard is representative of social media marketing. Let’s say every day on your way to the office you drive by a billboard for a company you’ve purchased from. Now imagine the billboard says, “Good morning! Your left directional light is out.” Or, “You have to try the pumpkin coffee at Dunkin Donuts. It’s amazing!” Sooner or later you’re going to start responding. “Hey, thanks for the heads up.” Or, “You were dead on about the pumpkin coffee. It was awesome!”

Over time the series of long and short conversations between you and the billboard help you both learn about each other. You’ve started to build a relationship with this billboard (the company). Personification is taking hold and this non-human entity is suddenly humanizing. You’ll start to view the company not as a company, but as a person you can go to when you have complaints, suggestions, insights or anything really.

When companies create privately-branded online communities around their products and services, they start to feel “smaller,” “more accessible,” “more trusting” and “more human,” which is more than a non-talking billboard can say (or not say—because it can’t talk…get it?). A company that has a billboard should get that billboard to talk, to listen and to have valuable dialogue with customers. Dialogue creates trust. Trust leads to loyal, lasting customers.