Social Media entities like Facebook® and Twitter® have taken the forefront in terms of marketing opportunities. Behind the leaders are a slew of other social tools – each claiming to offer something that outshines the competition. To the rescue come the social media “experts” – the folks who will charge you a fee and teach you how to juggle a couple handfuls of social marketing channels.
Those who do not engage more than just the basic social marketing channels are looked upon as being behind the times. The ongoing pressure to use a particular social media tool can sometimes obscure questions relating to making the right choices when putting together your social media arsenal.
For example, should every business use Foursquare®?
As a small business owner, your ultimate goal is simple: Draw more people toward your offering. Unfortunately, what is often designed to help someone can often result in harm. Someone, somewhere, may ask the question, “Is this service congruent with how this particular business desires to be perceived?”
Inevitably, what you must ask yourself is, “What’s going to be the overall return on my time commitment allotted to the selected social resources?”
Many businesses now see social marketing channels as the end-all in terms of marketing. If you ask the social marketing experts, they will nod their head in agreement. The question that you need to ask yourself is, “What is the best way to reach my target market – my niche?” In other words, the tools must be right for the application, not the other way around.
Two of our companies have no web presence, and yet – all we hear is, “In this day and age, everyone needs a website.”Really? Says who? Who are you to say how my target market would like to be accessed? What makes you an expert with regard to my niche?
The crowd mentality, often referred to as the herd mentality, tells us that societal opinions move as a large unit – like a crowd or a herd of cattle. Your neighbors purchase a tablet (i.e. the iPad 2®) and you purchase a tablet. Did you really NEED it or will you attempt to justify the purchase by claiming greater productivity, convenience, etc.?
The feeling that you have to follow the social marketing channel herd – for no other reason than not wanting to be left out, is foolish and time consuming. While I understand the attraction to these tools due to the low cost of utilizing social channels, a final evaluation will ask you to determine whether it got you to where you NEED to be.
Our company still uses print media when that’s what addresses our need. Why? Well – look at it like this: You may be able to give a child the experience of riding a bicycle through the countryside using Wii Fit®, but is that going to be the same as actually getting outdoors and riding a bike? Sometimes you just need the actual experience.
My team and I are not perfect. We don’t always say the right thing, even though we try to do the right thing. E-mail, for example, has taken vocal intonation out of communicating with other human beings. The end result is that things that we would never actually say to a person – are communicated to them using words and symbols. We will be the first to admit that our email communications have not always gone as planned, which in turn creates an air of misinterpretation that feeds on itself to the point where communication comes to a halt.
Social marketing channels need to be looked at objectively, not economically. When you falsely determine a social marketing channel to be a better financial option than the desired marketing channel best suited for a desired goal, you sacrifice the desired outcome. More often than not, the post interaction debriefing after a salesperson blew a sale and/or lost an account, will conveniently skip over the hard questions and simply determine that the lost sale was due to the economy.
What is the cost of losing a customer? What is the cost of destroying a relationship? Just because a new form of media is introduced to the masses, and turns itself into a “gotta have app,” does not mean that you NEED to have it. You have to step back from your business and ask yourself, “What is the best way to build a relationship with my client, my customer, my patient?” “What tools are right for ME?”
Sometimes the best strategy is to mimic the actions of a little kid who doesn’t want to be told to clean up his room, puts his hands over his ears, and starts screaming, “La, la, la, la, la, la, la…I can’t hear you…la, la, la, la.” It can save you a lot of time, a lot of lost revenue, and a number of highly valued relationships.
MIND VIRUS is the brainchild of Dr. Marc Swerdlick – Chief Mind Officer, master Relentless Tactical Strategist, and a real world, no holds barred self-improvement expert. MIND VIRUS is a company that offers improvement solutions for small business owners, professionals from any field, and any individual who simply wants to be BETTER.
Dr. Swerdlick is a well-known and sought after professional speaker, current member of The National Speakers Association, International Speakers Network, Global Speakers Federation, and The National Speakers Association of Illinois. Dr. Marc is known for his directive, strategic “bullet-like” approach to business, professional, and personal betterment. Dr. Marc doesn’t just tell you that you need to make a change: He tells you how to get it done.
You can obtain more information about contacting or hiring Dr. Swerdlick by going to www.mindvirus.com or via e-mail at info@mindvirus.com.