Let me be the first to say that social media is a brilliant tool. It can enhance every aspect of your marketing plan from Public Relations to direct mail. Although… there is a time and place for everything. It is extremely important to realize the potential of social media can either be a primary or secondary.
When should social media be used as a primary tool?
If you are building a personal brand, social media can be a huge driver to increase a following or “fans.” Many small businesses are run by so-called thought leaders… The visionaries behind the brands that are being built by the thousands. Small businesses must rely heavily on referrals and word-of-mouth marketing and what better tool to help the process than soacial meda. As you advance in a community of clients and customers you can use social media as your primary source of marketing.
Whether social media can be defined as a medium or a tool (later post) is not the point. Arguing over semantics hasn’t helped anyone in the past. You have the opportunity to build your brand.. both personally and professionally. Embrace it.
This is the first time in history when millions of people are just a click away. You can’t get any better than that. So how should you get start on your online brand development?
- Do your customers even care? Make sure you do not negate your current clients. Keep picking up the phone.
- Research what others are doing in the area. What are your competitors writing about? How can you be different? How can you do it better?
- Start a blog. Sign up on WordPress.com and start writing (after the research, of course)
- Go to CommonCraft and get update on the more recent tools on the Internet. They will help you in your social media quest.
And remember… be conscious of your people. What makes them tick?
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I’m trying to teach some of the old commercial real estate dinosaurs at my company about this. Man it’s a slow process.
Great Article! This is very useful to me. Thanks for sharing!
Great Article! This is very useful and relevant to me. Thanks for sharing.
Great perspective. Social media is a transition from traditional marketing and is here to stay!