Is Social Media Changing Lead Generation?

I was reading Jeremiah Owyang’s post about social networking and corporate sites connecting and he makes a general reference about the changing landscape of lead generation:

“Because brands will let users login using their social network identity (like Facebook or Twitter) they are increasing their chances of user interaction and engagement –but miss out on lead generation in the traditional sense.”

This was an interesting proposition from one of the leading minds in the Internet interaction world. Is the entire definition of lead generation changing in the business environment? I would venture to say… maybe a little bit.

There are plenty of lead generating activities that will not change the overall concept when it comes to search engine marketing or e-mail list buying. There are still ways to produce lead generation using content through software services like Compendium Blogware or an awesome organic search firm like Slingshot SEO. But there has been a slight shift in how small businesses and corporate brands are building lead generation through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN.

We are talking about  lead generation activities built through relationship development. Let me be clear that you need both strategies when developing a marketing strategy for the Internet but it is important to recognize that consumers may want more interaction than previously believed.

Through interaction and engagement you can build a different type of list than in the “traditional sense.” This is the whole concept of customer evangelists… empowering people to share your brand. You may find that sales may be longer but they are sales just the same.

Connect both strategies of search lead generation and social networking interaction when connecting your brand to the marketplace.. you may be pleasantly surprised!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Four Business-Social Networking Sites Worth Visiting (networksboise.wordpress.com)
• Caveat Emptor: Do You Know Enough to Buy or Hire Social Media Expertise? (socialmediatoday.com)
• Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1) (readwriteweb.com)
• Allen Weiss: What the Young People Say About Social Media (mpdailyfix.com)

The One Place You Should Focus ALL Marketing

Many times we (marketing professionals) talk about the concepts of an integrated marketing approach. “You should be doing email marketing, billboards, radio ads, blah blah blah blah. ” Sometimes it gets a little heavy… Sometimes it gets a little burdensome.

Business owners want to know one thing: How do you drive brand awareness or revenue. As a small business owner there is one form of marketing/communication strategy that should be the MAIN focus of all of your endeavours: word-of-mouth marketing or referral marketing. We are a small business economy built off of referrals.

When building out your marketing plan or talking with a marketing company… make very sure they are discussing the leveraging power of referrals. There is no better way to build your business.

Related articles by Zemanta

• BzzAgent.com – Word Of Mouth Marketing Services (killerstartups.com)
• Is Getting Clients on Facebook a Myth? (socialmediatoday.com)
• The Risks Of Referral Marketing (killerblog.com)
• Seven Steps to Better Customer Referrals (myventurepad.com)

Using Social Media to Sell Yourself

Daryl Mather has a great post about frictionless selling over at the Consulting Pulse. It was such a great article and I wanted to take the concept of frictionless selling and apply it to social media marketing and blogging. It is extremely important to understand the concept of frictionless selling. To say the least:

Frictionless Selling surrounds the understand that the least amount of barriers between a person and a purchase… the better.

This means that you should not have massive forms to fill out in order to sign up for a newsletter. This means that it is better to have your phone number than a contact form (this can be debated).

Frition based selling has no place in social media. The speed of conversation and the amount of personality needed to elicit some type of purchasing pattern cannot be screwed up by a massive form or a huge blog posts.

Remember to tell stories when writing your content. Be passionate about what you love and what you do (hopefully, two of the same). Remember to give people an easy way to get in contact with you. The will love you for it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The 3 Business Blog Strategies (wordsellinc.com)
• The Zen of Social Media (myventurepad.com)
• Creating and managing an online community (specialdee.wordpress.com)
• Social Networking or Social Notworking? (myventurepad.com)

The Value of Thought Leadership for Your Business

Is thought leadership valuable for a small business? That is the question that is being asked around the blogosphere as of late. Is it important for an owner, sales director, or a sole proprietor to be involved and have their “head” into the concept of thought leadership?

Well. I would say yes but what is the definition of a thought leader?

Thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets)

Now, I don’t have a clue what a “thinklet” is but there is the definition of thought leader from wikipedia. Does this strike you as something important for your business? Instead of thinking of a thought leader as a single individual why not view your entire company as a massive thought leader?

Using social media can help you develop and nurture your (company) thought leadership by sharing ideas, view points, and opinions on events in your industry. By developing trust you are developing thought leadership. Last time I checked… trust potentially can lead to a long term sale.

By constantly producing content that is genuine, up-to-date, thoughtful, and insightful you can develop a leadership base that will follow your lead.

What do you think happens when one of your readers runs into a pain point in their business that you talk about on a daily basis… lead generation at its best.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Thought Leadership Ain’t What It Used to Be (thecustomercollective.com)
• Thought Leadership Webinar February 10 (deswalsh.com)
• Thought Leadership is Not Enough (socialmediatoday.com)
• Give the People What They Want: Thought Leadership and Lead Gen (funnelholic.com)

Expose Yourself. I Dare You.

“The lesson is, we all need to expose ourselves to the winds of change. We need to expose ourselves to our customers, both the ones who are staying with us as well as those that we may lose by sticking to the past.” -Andrew Grove, co-founder of Intel

I have a question for you… What is one of the largest public relations and customer communication problems facing companies?

I can help you out… it is ignorance and the decision to simply not listen. This concept can stem from every corner of a corporation or a small business. The CEO chooses not to listen because they simple do not know or a small business owner decides to ignore the ever changing world of customer communication.

We are experiencing a shift in how customers relate to brands. You can no longer hide behind a massive white paper, public relations firm, or marketing campaign.

The time is now. Expose yourself. Take the dive into the world of online communication. Start a corporate blog. Start a twitter campaign for a product. Get your customer service department trained in the ways of social media.

Can you feel the winds of change blowing through your window? Or did you decide to yank it close…?

Only to experience it being shattered.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Could Patents and Greed Sink Silicon Valley? (lockergnome.com)
• Intel’s Grove: Something foul in Silicon Valley (news.cnet.com)
• Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails (conversationagent.com)
• Ron Strauss On Knowledge Sharing As A B2B Strategy (marketing.blogtanker.com)

Killing the Machine with Social Media

First off… a side note… If you are not reading Convince & Convert by Jason Baer you should be. He always gets me thinking and brainstorming on new methods and ideas to marketing through social media.

If you were to think back to the days of (what we will call) old-school marketing…the days where big money won and the more you broadcasted the higher the return…it can be debated that the marketing arm of many companies ran much like a machine. Yes, there was some creative thought process involved but the communication model was more machine-like than we would care to admit.

They (the machines) started churning out hundreds of thousands of ideas in order to plaster on our minds the benefits of their products and services. More often than not, it worked.

In the age of the Internet, open collaboration, and social media the machine is slowly dying and giving way to a more sophisticated school of thought. The customer is now crafting the message of brands. The customer has castrated the machine of marketing and created a new form of communication.

In the words of Jason, social media is now at the forefront of the customer experience. The thoughts and ideas of brands are no longer crafted in the board room (which many people would like to believe) but created in our living rooms, restaurants, gathering places, and keyboards.

As a business owner it is up to you to listen to this message. To never ignore the potential that social media can have on your brand and welcome the unison of voices which are the PEOPLE who love your product… and..

the people who do not.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Marketer // Customer (socialmediatoday.com)
• Lewis Green: Businesses Will Take Social Media to the Bank (mpdailyfix.com)
• Top 5 Ways To Screw Up When Using Social Media To Build Your Business (sitepoint.com)
• Engagement, Influence and User Experience (directmarketingobservations.com)

Sometimes You Should Just Walk Away and Simplify

It is important to understand when to walk away.

There has been times in my short career (3 years) where I have needed to walk away from my desk, from Twitter, from Facebook, from website design and graphic design… to just step away and re-evaluate where I was headed and where I wanted to go. We all work as hard as we can to get ahead in life and yet the best thing we can do sometimes… is to walk away.

The communication and technology worlds are creating an explosive.. fast paced world. Everyone is trying to stay on top of the trends and trying to pull ahead. I want to encourage everyone to slow down and look internally before deciding how to communicate with the external market. Sometimes you need to simplify before you maximize.

I recorded this video last year when Brandswag was still working out of  my apartment. Ahhh the days of a start-up. It talks about simplifying your life in order to reconnect with why you started your business or job in the first place.

Please ignore the spray can in the back.. behind my head.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How do we overcome obscurity in this age of abundance? (ac-idealog.blogspot.com)
• Twitter is our id, Facebook is our Ego (informationarbitrage.com)
• Words Of Wisdom For Twitter: Integrate Facebook Connect (allfacebook.com)
• Why Twitter is the better Facebook (jenslapinski.wordpress.com)

The Strange World of Social Media

The majority of us are strangers right? I mean… we talk on a regular basis and exhange links but there are few that you can actual call “trusted friends.” And yet we love what we do. 

I love getting up in the morning and having multiple conversations with people all over the world. I love sharing content with enlightened minds just trying to understand concepts of design, marketing, social media, the Internet, and life. 

The majority of us are strangers but we share a common bond: interest. There is a common thread that ties all of us together: the social web. Our interests keep us coming back and keep us in the loop.

When marketing and creating relationships with customers over the web it is important to remember this… the killer of all.

Your customers want to relate to you and in the strange world of social media it has become easier to relate, share, and communicate. 

Related articles by Zemanta

• After The Social Media Marketing Sugar High (marketing.blogtanker.com)
• Ubiquity on the Internet (performancing.com)
• Analysis of a wiki of social media marketing examples (beingpeterkim.com)
• Why Banks Need Social Media Monitoring (techrigy.com)

6 Posts Every PR Professional Should Read

There has been a lot of talk in the public relations world about social media and for good reason. I thought I would put together a list of the top 6 blog posts I feel every PR professional should read.

1. Public Relations Activities that Affect SEO
By Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog

2. Social Media is the Responsibility of Public Relations
by Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer

3. Social Media is Transforming Public Relations
by PodTech

4. Is Social Media Killing PR?
by Kara Swisher at All Things Digital

5. PR and Social Media Evolution Continues
by the BuzzBin

6. A Social Public Relations Survey
by Jennifer Leggio at ZDNet

That is your PR and Social Media reading for Monday. Take a look and digest ALL OF IT. Cheers!

10 Tips to Build Trust with Social Media

In the new economy there is one major truth that stands above the rest. Trust equals revenue. If you are a small to mid-sized business it is the amount of trust you can build between clients that strengthens your brand.

With trust comes happy clients and with happy clients come referrals. Trust is a fundamental block of building business. Marketing is built under the assumption that stories can create an emotional bond between a consumer and a brand… a client and a service. Can you tell a story… create a service and en experience that builds trust?

Social media can help you build that trust.

1. Content

Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content you are building a bridge to later sell that person on your services. Talk about what you do on a daily basis. When I  say you.. it means you are writing and communicating stories that happen to you on a daily basis.

2. Be Transparent

This can also pertain to content or how you use a specific social network. Be human. The people who are interested in your thoughts and suggestions want to know about you as a person. They could care less about a sale you are having or the amount of money you can cut off their bottom line. They want to know how you helped LARRY the plumber or Susan the account.

3. Picture of Your Day

When you are using social networks make sure you put up pictures of your daily life. If you have a cell phone with a camera takes some pictures of your daily routine and share them with your connections. Just don’t over do it. We can only look at so many professional business or glamor shots in a day.

4. Picture of You

Use your real picture. I don’t know how many times I have said this. Don’t use your logo. There is only one exception to this rule. If you are using Twitter for your business and personal (see my company @Brandswag for an example).

5. Saying Thank You

If somebody helps you share information or decideds to retweet a post.. make sure you thank that person. They are helping you spread the word… they are your online evangelists.. If you miss a thank you.. don’t let it kill you.. but try to make the most of the people that help you out.

6. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter

See my post… I hate Twitter Auto-DM

7. No Hard Selling

I don’t care about your enewsletter or the new lotion you are selling. Also, just because I reply to a tweet or a message does not mean you can message me back and sell your wares. Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy… get on the train.

8. Time is Important

Remember that you are building relationships.. do not trust the people that tell you to add 1023920 friends and make $10,000 a month. It is a load of crap. Build your following slowly… create relationships in an online environment that can be transferred offline.

9. Criticism is Important

You will be criticized. It is a truth of open communication. Take it with stride and respond. If you are debated… make sure you debate back. Stand up for what you believe and you will gain trust with the people who are listening…. and watching.

10. Have fun

Good Lord… is it that hard? You have the ability to connect with thousands… and thousands… and thousands of people from every nationality… and life experience. Just imagine your ability to expand your knowledge base and learn?!

One thought: If you are not enjoying and having fun with what you do… quit… go find something else.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Guest Post by Ethan Yarbrough: Lessons Learned (ariwriter.com)
• One Most Important Factor of Social Media Marketing (futurebells.com)
• Your Social Media Questions (altitudebranding.com)
• Social networking in the office (myventurepad.com)