Social Media...Why?

You know... we've been posting thoughts about social media (like everyone else in marketing) like crazy and it occurred to me that we never really answered the question as to WHY you should consider it. Let me offer up just a couple of compelling reasons:

• By having people from your company (executive team or otherwise) putting information out in the Twitterverse, on Facebook, or Linked-In, you will be putting an all-too-important face on your brand. You're essentially giving the "would be consumer" a window into the soul of your company. A personal appeal that has not been available on such a broad scale at any time in our history. This broad-based communication on a personal level falls directly in line with one of the oldest maxims in marketing: That "people buy what they know," and if they get to know you that will go a long way towards building a great lead generation community.

• Social media is based on "permission" rather than interruption. What I mean by this is that with social media you are following people, asking them to be your friend, asking them to follow you, asking them to add you to their list, etc. You need their "permission." Traditionally, whether it be print, direct mail, phone solicitation, direct sales, etc. there was a degree of interruption involved in the process. You had to "replace" the thought your prospect was thinking with something more compelling...in other words, you needed to "interrupt" whatever it was they were thinking of and/or doing in order to get your message across.

• You can be as big as anyone out there: Fortune 500 companies have just the same amount of opportunity as you in the Social Media Network universe...as a matter of fact, many of them are still trying to figure out just how to leverage it. Smaller, more efficient companies are taking advantage of this format on a daily basis. In the online universe, and especially in the Social Marketing/Networking arena, ad budgets don't matter and therefore, the playing field is much more level.
  

For ages small and medium sized business owners have tried to figure out a cost effective method of doing this...now they can.