Social marketing is hard says Harvard Business Review - or not?

Even the academics and "professionals" are saying that social marketing, which I really think is affiliate marketing without any sales going on, is hard (read their comments below).

Why are they saying it is so hard?  Because social marketing that does any good, is based in the heart.  Social marketing is not about having a zillion followers or friends. Social marketing is what we are being and doing when we are speaking from our hearts - being authentic. That is why social marketing is so hard - it goes aganist the grain of our society driven by the mind - analyzing everything - and competing.

All this is to say, doing affiliate marketing doesn't mean you have to work at it so hard. All you need to do is apply yourself using authentic conversations, using the law of attraction, and managing your emotions.

"Social marketing experts will tell you that marketing has to become more conversational, more relationship oriented. While most companies have now learned how to say hello and how to apologize, I would argue that few have accepted that the fact that power has shifted. The passive, obedient consumer and paternal, in-control organization have given way to a vocal, informed consumer and an organization struggling to comprehend what this all means to their bottom line. (Of course, the notion of a passive consumer, and a mass market was overly simplistic; consumers were never as passive as companies like to think.)

Relationships aren't rational, but emotional. They certainly aren't predictable. (Try applying the marketing funnel to your love life and see how it goes. If you date 20 people, in 2.5 years will you end up with 0.7 kids?) In fact, marketing in the social era does start to look a lot like falling in love, following an arc of romance, struggle, stability, and commitment. As anyone who's ever been in love can attest, it's not a linear path."

Harvard Business Review
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/why_social_marketing_is_so_har.html

Abundant Living Affiliate Network: http://discernmenttimes.com/abundantliving