Tacebook and Fwitter Can Sometimes Be Confusing
By Sandi Krakowski
How embarrassing! I was on a conference call, passionate as always, content flying through my head and doing my best to get it out of my mouth and to my audience.
Social media was the topic. It's one of my most favorite topics lately! So as I began to talk about how some people get confused when they enter the world of social media, this came out of my mouth, "Tacebook and Fwitter can be pretty confusing sometimes, I know!" Oh my word. What a silly girl.
I simply apologized and said I am occasionally blonder than I pay to be…. and went on explaining that when you first take a look at social media, it can indeed be confusing.
Social media is a channel, where people connect. They are easy to reach, easy to serve and they could be your ideal best client.
But why has Social Media created such a big change in the way business is being done? Why are people searching for the best employees, the best deals, the best customer service and even some great friends through this channel of human interaction?
To get a better understanding of how Social Media can work for your business let's look at the way business used to be done:
TV
Radio
Newspaper
Magazine
Billboards
Phone solicitation
Direct Mail
Post card drop
Door to door solicitation
and I'm sure if you are creative you could come up with about 100 or more smaller or secondary ways to have your product or service seen by millions of potential clients.
All of these 'channels' are still available and credible in today's marketplace, but not all of these channels are as profitable as they used to be.
Enter the world of the internet. Referred to as a marketers dream, a beast that needs to be tamed, a pseudo culture and cyber reality. The internet, my friends, is simply a channel. It's a very profitable channel!
When we built our first store online in the 90's we were ironically thriving in the midst of the Dot.Com bust. The internet was our main channel with direct mail, phone solicitation and post cards working in a complimentary way.
Today some of the most profitable channels are:
The internet
Social Media
Email marketing
PPC
Banner ads
JV partnerships
Affiliates
Now you can see that the internet itself is not a 'big world' of it's own, it's merely the most effective channel to date in the history of our world that connects people globally instantaneously.
Therefore, when we look at Twitter or Facebook the most logical way to approach and use these channels for business are in a direct response marketing manner.
To approach Twitter or Facebook like it's a game or something you can 'sling' advertisements into is completely illogical. It's the most widely used place on the earth where targeted clients can be found, marketed to, captured into a house list and served for the life of your company.
But how do you do this effectively?
Rule number one would be to have a direct response approach. All of your actions and interactions must have a purpose. They must be strategic and well planned. Even sharing what you eat for dinner, sharing your life, interacting and intermingling your personal life must be done with a strategy.
Approach social media with a goal in mind. Do you want more subscribers? More purchasers for your products or services? PR? Speaking engagements? What is it specifically that you want? This should be in your mapped out plan when using social media.
Social media connects you with people, most times in real time. There is no other channel of marketing other than live chat and a phone line or webinar where you can get instantaneous feedback, responses and input like social media provides.
With this in mind your goal would be a direct response.
- Submit a free report and the intended direct response might be opt ins to your house list.
- Create a free webinar and the intended direct response would be registration by opt in for the event.
- Create a landing page, with an offer and the intended direct response is the purchase of the product.
- Offer a coaching program and the intended direct response is to fill the program with paying clients.
Did you notice that the goal in direct response marketing is none of the following?
It's not effort
It's not traffic
It's not a low Alexa rank
It's not friends
It's not followers
It's not foggy
It's direct
It's specific
It's quantifiable
It's strategic
To have 500 specifically targeted clients that are marketed to in a very strategic way will pay you MORE than 50,000 people who have a pulse and have no direct target or goal.
So…. how does social media become less confusing?
Use it as a tool to communicate, connect, build rapport and market. Respect and honor the people you are in contact with. Give people what they want. Ask questions, let them talk.
Social media is a great place to test any marketing campaign- if it doesn't work there you most likely will want to edit it. Social media is a great place to find good employees, recruiters are now looking at social media profiles before even a resume. (Makes you want to be careful, doesn't it, with what you put on social media.)
Marketing on social media can strategically place you in front of people to the point that you'll begin to hear, "I don't know how you got here but I am so glad you did!" It connects people who are ready to buy, who want what you have and are ready and are willing to 'evangelize' your product for you.
Social media is a channel, where people connect. They are easy to reach, easy to serve and they could be your ideal best client.
You'll never look at Tacebook or Fwitter the same again, I'm sure of it. My goal is to empower people to use the internet to connect with real people, create a real business and enjoy a real life in the process.
Sandi Krakowski spent 6 years in the Direct Sales industry building a $ 4 million dollar company that was run 100% online through eCommerce, building large sales forces in network marketing and home business industries. After earning $ 1.8 million dollars in a home based business market in 31 months, she went onto build a 7-figure marketing and copywriting firm in just 20 months. Currently she runs one of the fastest growing training venues teaching beginners to experts how to really use the internet to it's fullest capacity.
