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Getting on board with social media
Social Media and Brand Strategy in Europe by Susan Rice Lincoln, Master the New Net
In regards to the Susan’s commentary about business in Europe and the almost panic to get advice on how to best integrate social media into companies’ brand strategy.
Susan,
I am not sure that business in Europe is that far behind the business to business organizations that I call on. Recently one B2B manufacturer that I met with said they had only heard about it 3 months ago. The marketing director said that she didn’t understand how social media could possible help them.
Lo and behold, 7 people in sales and marketing were already on LinkedIn. I did a quick search to show how a few of their competitors were already positioned with profiles on other social media sites. This Director of Marketing was not on any social media sites herself.
Yes indeed, no matter the country, people are actively engaged on these social sites. Our goal should be to get in the recommendation chain. We as business developers, can’t do it in our traditional ways if companies don’t take our calls, or allow us to talk with them.
Several months ago I connected with two people on LinkedIn by answering questions for them. We stayed in touch, with quick comments on each others updates. A project just came up and together we pulled a team together for a proposal. The potential players on the team are in Paris, Australia Malta, Texas, Atlanta, Illinois, California and Wisconsin. Social media brought us together. Now how cool is that!
You are right when you say that”the social media revolution has been led by PEOPLE, not by technology.” We should be where they are in active conversation.
LinkedIn as a valued resource
LinkedIn Is a Waste Of a Sales Person’s Time! by Lee Salz, The Customer Collective
In response to comments about the value that LinkedIn brings to business as a lead source.
Lee,
Thanks for writing a post on Linkedin from the users perspective. As a lifetime sales person with business development a part of every job, I feel your tips on the use of LinkedIn are right on. I have recently received an opportunity to bring together an international team of professional for a project. These contacts found me on Linkedin. This is not something I would have had the chance to do without Linkedin to extend my network.
However, your advice on the size of groups might be limiting for someone trying to extend their network, or business opportunities geographically. Understanding your strategy for LinkedIn might be an important factor. For targeted niche products or services; or local and regional efforts I would agree that the size of the groups would be better smaller (1,000 – 5,000) for the points you mentioned. However, for extending your reach and growing connections, the larger groups have much more to offer.
Measuring social media ROI
When Measuring Social Media’s ROI For B2B Don’t Chase The Wrong Goals By Kipp Bodnar, Social Media B2B
In regards to Kipp’s post on measuring ROI for social media.
Kipp,
Consider looking at the ROI of social media by considering and benchmarking the initial social ecosystem, current clients and contacts. After building a strategy and action plan to achieve business goals, and implementing the strategy, tracking those connections that become clients. This brings the ROI to a basic level.
They were not a client or contact before the effort began, they are when you get done. In social media we know so much about the people we connect with from their profiles. ROI at its most simplistic level is social contact and then moving to a customer.
To tweet or blog is the question
A Blog is a Better Social Media Hub Than Twitter by Joel Postman, Social Media Today
In regards to Joel’s post on the importance of a blog over twitter as a business hub.
For social media, its very important to have a “home” to send readers and connections to when they experience you on a social media site. Twitter says so little about who you are that it is important to send them to a more complete location (linkedin profile, website or blog).
I like using WordPress as a blog and website. You can create the pages you need for your static pages and you have the benefit on creating a blog that the rest of your site benefits from as your traffic grows. If someone searches for and finds my blog, they can easily extend the relationship by reading more and getting my blog directly into email or their reader.
I like Twitter and Tweetdeck , but unless you are on it for some time, its hard to follow any conversation. I did try to have my mobile phone get tweets, but that lasted on one weekend. Its not the place to become a thought leader and those of us trying to write blogs have strategies that extend well beyond the 140 character limit. Twitter has its place but my blog/website is my “home” and my hub.
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