Social Media for Lead Generation? Maybe Not

I came to a conclusion about lead generation and customer service while I was reading through “The State of Small Business Report” from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. The report focuses on the development of small business and a section of the report talked about social media adoption. Social media adoption has actually doubled for small business over 2009 from 12% to 24%. However, that is not the interesting stat.

Based on the performance of Social Media image to the left it was rare when social media actually met the expectations of the business owner. This could be chalked up to higher expectations but there is an interesting dynamic that I recognized in the stats. The one stat that actually received higher than expected results was the collaborating more externally with vendors and customers.

This further supports thoughts I have had with Jason Baer and Brandon Prebynski... we talked about the concept of people laughing about social media being used for lead generation. The true value of social media is ingrained in communication through stories and customer service. We are talking about a communication medium where sharing, customer retention, and customer communication are absolutely… positively… king.

This also supports the concept of enterprise systems developing more social capabilities in the software helping corporate cultures market and communicate. Every facet of customer communication needs to be looking towards social as another way to speak values across a subset of people.

It is hard to imagine a world where every social media consultant is NOT talking about lead generation. However, we may be experiencing another shift in the way we look at social media.

By the way… small business is still increasing spending in social media. Let the games begin.

The Only Thing That Matters Is Your Story

We are experiencing a change in the world of customer communication. It is no longer the company that is controlling the brand management but the consumer. Forget the concept of social media… we have been witnessing this transition for the past decade… and it is increasing exponentially since the inception of the Internet.

Customers are now talking about you at a staggering pace using sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIN… and the list goes on. I was watching TV today and taking note of the increasinly terrible advertising that is taking place on the cable networks. I began to realize that I (along with millions of others) are no longer making buying decisions based on traditional advertising. You can take the definition of traditional advertising any way you want but in my terms it means old ways of doing business.

A great book to read is Made to Stick (from the Heath Brothers) which talks about the concept of creating a story to push your company into the next decade of communication. I have read, reread, and read again the excellent points made throughout the book and began to realize one thing… if you do not create a story that your customers can retell and share.. you will lose market share steadily over the next couple of years.

We might not be seeing a steady decline because social media and the Internet is still bleeding edge when it comes to market penetration in a global sense. My question is simply this: What happens when we do reach the peak of market penetration for social media? What happens when your customers ARE using the tool and using it effectively? What do you do when you reach the point? Are you ready for the onslaught? Is your communications department familiarizing themselves with the tools?

All that matters is your story. You are going to be creating a story based on a marketing process but we might come to the point where it doesn’t matter what you want your story to be… your customers are going to create a story anyway. Experience is the key to the future of marketing and customer communication. They (your customer) are going to be talking NOT about your sales or PR release but how they personally experienced your product or service.

Are you preparing yourself for the new age of communication?

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Is Email Marketing Better than Social Media?

I was thrown into a conversation through the Understanding Marketing blog surrounding the concept of email marketing being better than social media… or vice versa.

I tend to agree with the editor over at Understanding Marketing when they say:

“So there’s a big conversation on which one is better. Here’s what I say – Who cares!? They both serve your audiences in their own way.”

I couldn’t agree more. There shouldn’t even be an argument over which medium is better. You should be using both mediums to develop your marketing strategy. Email has been successful over the years to drive valued buyers to a landing page, website, or phone. Social Media is used to build a brand, tell a story, and start a conversation.

They are two different mediums.. two different uses.. two different outcomes. If you are wanting an idea about how to combine the two mediums… Here is something to chew on:

1. Social Media is available to start building brand awareness around a specific product or service. It is also there to truly empower your employees and clients to talk about your company.

2. Email is the second tier of communication. Once a potential client buys into your conversation through social media.. Email can be there to deliver relevant and sales material to push the sales across.

These are just two uses for the HUGE mediums of email and social media. How do you combine both strategies?

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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.

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90% of Your Business Will Be Digital or WOM

A fellow employee at Brandswag, Colin Clark, wrote  a blog post about the 5 Ways to Prepare for the year 2011. Now this is an interesting post title in itself. What is the deal with the year 2011? I finally had the chance to read Colin’s post which is centered around a comment by Seth Godin. Seth has predicted that the majority (90%) of your sales will come from either digital marketing or word-of-mouth.

Talk about a crazy prediction… or is it?

Is it so hard to believe that the majority of small-to-mid size business leads will be driven by customer referrals and communication online? We are experiencing a complete 180 in terms of communication. Brands are being controlled not by the owner of the product or service but by the users.

Customer experience has always had a small hold on brands but with the Internet and social communities… the definition of YOUR product and service is no longer… under your control.

Where do you go from here?

Learn. Read. Jump in.

And when I say read… I mean go read Colin’s blog about the 5 Ways to Prepare for the Year 2011. The year of communication.

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Put My Money on Myspace not Facebook

Ahh… welcome back to the Myspace and Facebook debate. I love talking about the business models of social networks across the Internet.

I was reading a post from Edmund Lee at theBigMoney called Why Facebook Can’t Succeed (via alisa at socialized) and I found myself agreeing with Edmund on some of the community versus business aspects of his post. I have always been under the assumption that we were approaching another net explosion (circa 1999) because of the value of companies being placed on growth instead of revenue. It seems ridiculous to me and completely backward.

It is easy for the social media nerds of the world to bash the social networks (Myspace) that tend to be a little more “whoring” of their advertising. The truth of the matter is that users of Myspace tend to spend more time on the site compared to Facebook.

“According to comScore Media Metrix, MySpace users spend an average of 234 minutes on the site each month, as opposed to Facebook’s 169 minute per user average. Furthermore, MySpace has a bigger cut of the U.S. audience, the most lucrative, at 75 million unique visitors for January, outpacing Facebook’s 57 million.” (Edmund Lee via comScore)

I might not be using Myspace as an individual but we cannot ignore the fact that they focus more on profitability than user growth. There is something to say about Myspace still appealing to users and the overall revenue growth of the company. Facebook may have a faster growth trend than Myspace but Myspace is the smarter social network of the two. The users are still hitting the site and using the tool…that is what matters to the growth of business in social media.

We are all still waiting for the brains of Facebook to present a viable revenue model for the site (Lexicon?) but until that time… I would invest in Myspace over Facebook.. any day of the week.

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Don’t Shoot at Fish in a Barrel. Blow the thing up!

Jeremiah Oywang has been ON FIRE the past couple of weeks with his posts regarding social media. I went through the slideshare (above) a couple of times and wanted to share.

When it comes to social media marketing you either understand the tools and then reach the customers…
or understand your customers and then find the tools!

Which choice do you think will grant you more success? The second.

Small business owners and business professionals are scraping to learn the tools presented to them. Whether it is for their personal use or for external marketing, they learn the tool and then broadcast it to catch the fish. They are choosing a gun… learning how to use the gun… and then firing into a barrel. Blow the thing up!

If you created a strategy and you understand your customer you don’t have to shoot anything… you will destroy the competition and the market. You will be picking dead fish up off the ground and cashing in. Dead fish apparently equal revenue/sales in my mind.

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Social Media and the Recession

When is the next phase of the Internet going to present itself? We hear talks about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 but when are we going to see social media adapt into it’s third phase? It could be after the recession.

I was reading a post by Chris Charabaruk about social media surviving the recession and he makes a comment about social media adapting towards the end of 2009:

“I think that social media will survive the recession. The idea itself is so insidious, so viral that it’ll never be stamped out. But how the world of social media will appear at the end of the recession will certainly be much, much different than it looked like going in.”

I always liked to dream that the next phase of the Internet or social media would be through innovation and a new form of communication. When will the next phase come? When does innovation and quick development happen? In what Keith McFarland calls Hard Times University in his book Breakthrough Company.

When we are faced with hard times and adversity… the survivors shine through. I think we will see the advent of a new form of social media because of the economic crunch. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace will have to learn how to monetize or die and because of that market stress they will evolve or die.

I am excited to see the transition. In like every market there are deaths, changes, and rebirths.

Unless you are Ford and GM… then you get a bailout.

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Should We Even Consider ROI in Social Media?

(hat tip to 123 Social Media for the posed question)

There is endless talk online and off-line of increased traffic to websites, comments galore, users joining your community, and community development. The question posed through all of this discussion is the concept of measuring ROI in Social Media.

Having an arm of our company, Brandswag, be a social media strategy and marketing division it is constantly on our minds. How do you take those GREAT campaigns and measure ROI? It is pretty simple. The majority of social media marketing is brand development driven. Of course, you have the companies like Compendium Blogware that measures organic search and leads through their proprietary software which caters to a form of ROI.

When thinking of ROI in social media it is all dependent on your campaign. If you are using Facebook for donations, writing a blog as a small business, or using LinkedIN for networking purposes it is important to figure out goals before hand.

If you want to build brand name recognition in a specific geographic location you are looking at a brand development focus. It is extremely intangible. Success is measured over a length of time and that is hard to pinpoint.

Social Media is amazing for brand development. Hands down one of the best tools you could use to further your name in a community.

Use the tool for what it’s worth. It is extremely possible to start mixing social media marketing into your traditional marketing campaigns and further the power of your marketing arm.

The success comes in the little things…that leads to the HUGE things.

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The Best ROI Explanation for Social Media and Some Additions

As an owner of a social media marketing and design company, it can be hard to explain the return on investment in accordance with social media use. I think many of us (marketers) try to find a return on investment because:

A. It can be easier to sell the marketing because of an ROI explanation.

B. We believe so much in social media. We want to use it… every chance we get.

Jason Falls has one of the best explanation (and personal views) of ROI in Social Media in his post: What is the ROI for Social Media?

In the post he starts out by stating a quote I have posted in my office on the wall:

The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

He goes on to say that it is hard to convince business owners that the point of social media is the conversation and relationships. If they are mainly in it for money “they will fail.”

Your ROI is what you got out of the conversation, not what you got out of their checkbook.

I have always been a believer in social media to help grow your business. You can use it as a delivery tool to send a message to many users in a short time span and build relationships. The problem with the business environment and social media is the mindset many business owners are under… the “i need my return now” mindset. “I’m investing $2000 a month in marketing.” I need to see return every month.

Social Media takes time to develop. Amy Nowacoski has a comment on Jason’s blog post has a great comparison for Social Media and ROI:

ROI on human interactions is always very tricky. I’ve worked in fundraising and development for years, and have always held that fundraising events cannot always be about the bottom line. It can’t be about just the dollar figure you amassed that night. Events are also about cultivation and engagement. I would spend time making sure everyone, not just the big donors, feel like VIPs because that guy who only bought a $20 ticket today, could be the guy who gives you $20K in 10 years.

There are always methods of combining social media marketing with traditional marketing. This will give you something of substance (ie direct mail) with something intangible (social media).

Social Media is growing in popularity and growing in validity as a powerful marketing tool. Start getting involved. Set some goals and achieve trusted relationships in your community!

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