Are people taking your cold calls to them? Is your direct mail generating enough response to make it profitable to do? Are you steadily getting in front of new prospects on a regular basis? If you are like most companies, the answer is a big “NO”. It’s not just the economy though; it is also the movement of change. The change that social media is bringing.

Here are some interesting statistics

Statistics on Social Media Users

• 33% visit social media sites to engage in product research before making a purchasing decision.
• 47% say social media sites influence their decision to purchase specific companies, services and brands.
• 26% of respondents changed their minds about purchasing a product after reading about it on a social media site.

Statistics on Online Users

• 91% say consumer reviews are the #1 aid to buying decisions.
• 87% trust a friend’s recommendation over a critic’s review.
• They are 3 times more likely to trust peer opinions over advertising for purchasing decisions.
• They feel that 1 word-of-mouth conversation has the impact of 200 TV ads.

IN SUMMARY
People are not listening to what you have to say without first listening to their trusted networks.

Social Media isn’t just for social fun

There has been a tremendous surge of businesses moving online to social media over the past several months. The advancements that Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have made, along with the continuous release of new add-ons and plug-ins to enhance business performance and trackability is further testimony to the movement. Here is a breakdown of activities and how companies have been using social media.

• 81% Generated exposure for their business
• 61% Increased subscriber/traffic/opt-in list
• 56% Resulted in new business partnerships
• 52% Increased search engine rankings
• 48% Generated qualified leads
• 45% Reduced overall marketing expenses
• 35% Closed more business

It’s not surprising that the largest use, 81%, is to gain additional exposure (also known as impressions). That seems like an obvious use. But what are very surprising are the percentages that follow and the real business value they offer.

Where are my Prospects? Sales & Marketing’s Social Movement is a post from: Social Media University

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Well, it didn’t just start overnight and it’s not going away anytime soon.

I moved to the Netherlands in late 1989. Upon getting settled in Amsterdam one of the very first things I did was to ride a late night train to Berlin. Together with a group of college students and backpackers standing alongside Berliners and in the midst of military and police, I wielded a sledge hammer and broke off massive chunks of the Berlin Wall. I still have pieces of it in my office today.

The Soviet Union crumbled, East and West German reunified, the maps of central and eastern Europe were rewritten daily. The countries of the European Union opened up their borders to one another. The whole world changed. Then it happened.

First twenty four hour news, and then the Internet arrived. Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) became the native language of the World Wide Web (WWW). Internet Service Providers (ISP), domains, hosts and serving computers came into place. Websites were born. Email was introduced and has quickly become the largest form of communication ever known.

Suddenly information traveled faster and to more people than ever before in history. A world that was starved for information now had access to it. A new Information Era had emerged.

We’ve now grown from Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), Usenet newsgroups and Internet relay chat (IRC) to websites, online forums, instant messaging (IM) and blogs to social networking, communities and micro blogs. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are busily active and growing rapidly.

People today not only have access to information, they respond and contribute to it. The days where it was possible to tell people what to think, what to do and what to buy has passed away into the night. They (We) are no longer willing to have marketing and advertising pushed at them and business done to them. What people want is to have a voice and to be a part of the conversation.

Today’s tools for social media provide a means to engage one another and are the hottest innovations in internet marketing since search. Trends indicate this medium is poised for continued and exponential growth for years to come.

Let’s face it, social media is not a question of “if”, but rather of “when” you will get involved.

Social media is an integral part of life today. Let’s get onboard and see where it takes us. Better still, let’s join in the conversation, even lead in it, and a have a say so in creating the future ourselves.

So What Exactly is All of the Buzz Regarding Social Media all About? is a post from: Social Media University

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Every time I get into a conversation with people about the use of social media for marketing themselves, their businesses or organizations, I seem to get the same questions.

How often should I blog? How many people should I follow on Twitter? How many friends or members or fans should I have on Facebook? How often and when should I tweet or update? How often should I broadcast, how often should I provide information and how often should I engage in conversation? How much is too much and how much is just self promotion?

Interestingly enough these are all HOW questions. Nearly unfailingly, the most important questions overlooked are the WHAT and WHY questions. After that the next most important is determining the WHERE. The last question they need ask, if necessary at all, should be the HOW. In fact, once the why, what, and where are known, the how almost becomes obvious.

Before even caring to consider the how one need first carefully ask what their initial strategy for using social media is? What is the goal they’ve set out in advance to achieve? What is it that they want to accomplish? Why are specific channels chosen in preference over others? Where are the people you want to find going to be? Without knowing what they want to accomplish and why they are doing it, and where they are doing it, then no matter how they are doing it, it will likely lead to no good or sustainable result.

If they do not know what they want to achieve there is no metric available to determine if they achieve it. If the why is not clear then there will be little chance of establishing any clear or meaningful communication and without searching out where people are it is going to be pretty much like shouting into the wind.

Before undertaking entry into the use of social media at all they must first also take a step back and ask the question. What do people want? The Millennium survey done by Gallop in 1998 indicates that people want trust and respect, and to be valued and appreciated. It is largely accepted that there is a requirement to be authentic, and transparent in order to respond and deliver to these needs. This is why determining the what, the why and the where are so crucial. Without this the how takes precedence, and trust and respect are abused and people are neither valued nor appreciated.

Authenticity, what’s real and true, is lost and everything is reduced to a tactic instead of a principle. As much as people know, according to the Gallop survey, what they want, then they are very likely to recognize what they do not want as well. People can generally access when something is being done to them instead of with or for them. This too is transparent.

Remember, there is no shortcut to forming personal relationships. There are no fixed algorithms or formulas to use. If anyone tells you that they have definite methods or answers, without first spending any time looking at goals and the issues in getting to them, then a healthy skeptic’s early warning system should go off repeating loudly…

WARNING: Your Transparency is See Through

WARNING: Your Transparency is See Through is a post from: Social Media University

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