Social Media – the New Cure-All for Marketing and Sales or a Waste of Time?

As a professional business coach, clients frequently ask my views on Social Media. The questions are typically along the lines of "can it boost their marketing programs and create explosive sales growth?" Until now my answer has always been one that most people, and particularly clients, don't like to hear - "Well that depends."

I've been studying the topic intensely for the past year, both to advise clients and also as a means to expand my own practice, and now feel I can confidently give advice to business owners or executives who are considering investing time and money in a Social Media strategy.

Social Media Works for Most Businesses

There should be no doubt … if implemented correctly, Social Media can greatly increase the number of unique visitors to your website and hence the number of prospects you're reaching who can buy your product or service. In a recent training course, by implementing the tools that were demonstrated I was able to increase the number of new unique visitors to my website by 68 in less than 15 minutes. That's more visitors than I previously had in a typical day!

Get Trained

If you are a business owner or champion of the project its important to understand the basics of how Social Media attracts high quality prospects and how to convert them into paying customers. You may hire someone to do the routine work and maintenance once you've implemented the strategy, but you need to be the architect and director who charts the course. Start by becoming familiar with the major social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, My Space, Flickr and Plaxo.

Here are three excellent and affordable sources of Newsletter, Webinar style and classroom training: Paul Tobey - http://www.trainingbusinesspros.com/, Hubspot - http://www.hubspot.com/ and Mashable - http://www.mashable.com/

Use the Available Tools

 There are some great tools available to help you develop and implement a Social Media internet marketing strategy. Most are free but for those which are not I recommend that you sign up for the free Trial and then subscribe to the ones you find work best for you:   

• TweetDeck - described as "your personal real-time browser", it allows you to connect with all your contacts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Plaxo and most other major sites.

• Market Samurai - considered by many to be the best source for identifying the most important keywords for your business and an essential tool in Search Engine Optimization.

• Ping.fm - provides you with centralized coordination and control of all your Social Media sites and the posts you make.

• Stumble Upon - is an excellent way to stay abreast of the latest developments, coverage and videos of interest to you and your business.

• Disqus - keeps you informed on the hot topics and current discussion themes in the web community, so that you can actively participate.

Dive Right In

Frankly, I'm amazed at how much thought, time and resources many businesses put into analyzing and discussing whether they should implement a Social Media marketing strategy. The costs to "GET IN" are minimal and if you stay true to the core Value Proposition of your business and are honest with your audience and subscribers, the risks are negligible. The only way to find out what works best for your company and industry is to try it!

Build on Your Successes - Many others have

There are many real success stories of big and small companies that have reaped huge rewards from implementing Social Media marketing strategies. B2B Social Media recently ran an article "How IBM Uncovers Millions of dollars in Sales Leads." 

At the other end of the spectrum, Feather Your Nest is a specialty shop for homemade and vintage-looking gifts in the small town of Eureka Springs in Arkansas. In an interview with Mashable, Owner Gina Drennon says: “I’ve seen our web stats increase, followers increase, interactions increase, and most importantly, sales increase. But not only that, I’ve made many meaningful connections with bloggers and magazine editors …… which bring us huge amounts of attention that you really cannot put a price on. I can positively say that at least half of the national press we’ve received is due to contacts we’ve made over social media.”

Phil Richardson MBA. LPBC
President and Founder
Bizgrowth Coaching Inc.