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The REAL, Right Now Power of Social Media

Guest post by: John McEntyre

Article Overview: Everyone, I mean everyone is swirling around in this frenzy we in the industry call "Social." It is the current catch phrase of the moment and the buzz word of the year (my prediction). While we are all caught up in the excitement of the moment there are still a great many out there who do not fully understand the potential of this phenomenon.

The REAL, Right Now Power of Social Media

Lately, I have been trying to find a simple "Stadium Pitch," as Chet Holmes puts it, to explain the beauty of social media. Though the implications are fantastic... Reaching 1000's if not millions of potential customers Generating a true following for your company Expanding your companies demographic and psychographic scope Potential of being able to reach customers RIGHT at the point of decision Ability to really speak to your customers in a "cafe shaped" conversation setting like Chris Brogan encourages The problem I was having was proving how any of this was going to directly impact the ROI for our company or the companies for which we do Online Marketing for. Then, today, as I was plugging away on TweetDeck chatting it up about the great webinar yesterday from HubSpot it finally hit me. About 4 minutes prior to my webinar discussion I posted a tweet asking if anyone knew of any good blogging software for the Mac. The program I was using was cumbersome and I wanted a WordPress equivalent. I decided that I would follow the Hashtag and see what others thought. Almost as soon as I was done with the post I got a DM (direct message) from @jackenhack on Twitter telling me to try Ecto. I immediately followed his link, downloaded it, and began trying out. I was so very happy with the software (writing this very blog on it right now) that I thanked Jacken and posted my kudos all over every social network that I am a part of. I had a problem, I asked a question, and I got great feedback immediately about how to solve it. While the above example might itself be compelling proof of the power of social media it got me thinking about other times I have used my social networks to reach out to people when I was in need. Just last week we decided to purchase a new, larger vehicle to accommodate our newborn twins and our older children. I posted the request to my friends on Facebook and was bombarded people who had exactly what we were looking for (anything but a van). We have a deal in the works right now without having to spend a weekend at car dealerships or hours looking on the web. Point proven again... but wait! There's more! Last month, a friend of mine was looking for work. I told him that I saw some great postings from my connections on LinkedIn. I sent a few emails and reached out to those connections asking about positions they might have available. I received 23 responses and 9 of which were perfect fits for my buddy. He has since interviewed and been hired by one of those connections. This again shows the potential of social networking and how the implications can impact us at the most personal level. Finally, one of our business development managers was building his network on BizNik and started talking with marketing firms about how our services are beneficial to the same clients. He set up a few web/phone conferences and we began exploring the idea of collaborating with quite a few firms. We have since solidified a dozen relationships and have closed 7 deals all in a couple of weeks. These deals are larger than the median range for our current clients and they cost us nothing but time and some creativity. Both us and the marketing firms benefited from this arrangement as it expanded their offering and gave us access to channels we didn't have prior. The bottom line is this: Social is here to stay. There are some very profound implications as to the use of social media/networking; they simply require some creativity. Building relationships is that the Internet used to be about. Remember back to the days of getting your first email account? When you connected to someone out there in "Cyberspace" there was a real sense of community because most were not on the Internet then. I believe that Social is bringing that feeling back again and giving us "new-again" ways of really communicating to one another.

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Article Tags: social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


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