Online Marketing's Shift From Search to Social

When the World Wide Web was born, business people all over the world realized they could reach a portion of their prospects by using early search engines. And suddenly huge chunks of marketing shifted seismically from traditional media to digital media.

Today, for as much as we rely upon search engines for our heavy lifting, the web’s marketing focus is slowly turning toward “social” and away from “search”.

Social media has leapfrogged past personal boundaries and has taken up residence in the business world. We would be foolish to ignore its presence, its possibilities, and its potency.

Since we all know the best customer is a qualified one, one way for savvy business people to qualify a customer is to get to know those customers on social media. If you can initiate a dialogue on social media, you can create the form of a trusting business relationship. And that’s where true customer engagement is born.

So unlike marketing of the past - where we talked about our brands, our business model, why we were better than competition – social media marketing requires we listen and share appropriately.  Companies meeting their customers through Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Facebook are enjoying more developed, deeper relationships that have bonds lasting beyond a project or two.

If you’re not sure how to find your social media voice, try this simple exercise:

·      Consider what meaningful information you could share with those parties interested in your industry.

·      Then outline ideas for a post within a social media forum suitable for your industry and your audience.

·      Next, prepare and compose the post with a planned adversity toward sales. That is, develop your thoughts with a tone that is decidedly non-commercial in nature.

And if you’re listening to that little voice in your head screaming, “But isn’t the point to makes sales?” – the answer is yes. And no.

The point is to 

1. build your brand through social media
2. build relationships with parties who have an interest in your industry
3. provide an additional path of interaction for your customers
4. encourage others through social media to “share” and make referrals on your behalf
5. position you as a trusted authority on a subject
6. add value to a conversation within a social media community 

The sales will come. But first you need to create your social media presence with pure intentions; developing a social media “mission statement” may help serve as a guide.

Your social media mission statement should look something like this:

We pledge to –

Communicate meaningful ideas that generate conversation within a social media community.

Inspire our contacts to share their own ideas on a topic.

Seize opportunities to teach others.

Respond quickly to customers or others who reach out to us. Address complaints, appreciate compliments, and answer inquiries.

Enjoy the engagement of social media and use it to build deeper relationships.

Be a networker. Embrace opportunities to “introduce” parties that may enjoy symbiotic objectives.

Be more of a go-giver than a go-getter: we are prepared to give more than we get.

There are many reasons to embrace social media and make it a part of your company’s marketing.  It may not seem practical at first; in fact, it may seem to be a waste of resources. But take heart: 77% of respondents in a recent study admitted that they were more likely to buy from a company whose CEO used social media. 82% said they “trusted” a company more if that company had a social media presence.

Humans are social animals. We have discovered that joining together makes us more powerful, more successful and in many cases – more content. It’s why we build families, create communities, join teams and share knowledge.

Social media is really just an extension of that – an online community that shares for the betterment of the members.

So join in anytime. There’s a whole world waiting for you.