Here’s the challenge — you’re a marketing director who is ultimately responsible for selling your product to the end consumer. If you’re smart, you’re already using some form of social media. But the problem is that it’s nearly impossible to stay up-to-date on everything happening with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Flickr, MySpace and a whole slew of other social media tools.

(Side Note: The whole premise of the 60 Second Marketer is that we’ll study the new marketing tools for you, then give you short articles and videos on the most important stuff. That way, you can “Get in. Get Out. Get Back to Work.” But we digress…)

Anyway, where were we? Oh, yeah, we were talking about the competitive advantage social media can bring your company.

Here’s the bottom line: Your consumer wants to connect with you, but they want to connect with you on their own terms, not yours.

In the old days, the consumer could stop by the store or call you on the phone to place an order. But today, your consumer may get the urge to buy your product at midnight or while waiting in line at the bank.

That’s the power of social media (and all the other new tools that allow you to connect with your customer). If you provide a variety of ways for a customer to connect with you, you’re more likely to close the sale.

Some people may want to connect via your website. Others may want to connect via phone. And still others may want to connect via LinkedIn or Twitter. Worse yet, they all may want to connect during off-hours.

So, what’s a company to do? If you’re smart, you’ll provide any number of channels for your customers (or clients) to connect with you. If you’re not smart, you’ll stick with one or two communication/sales channels. Oh, sure, social media can be complex, hard to manage and confusing as hell. But it’s the wave of the future, so you’d better jump on board now.

The graphic above outlines two companies that have decided to take different approaches to connecting with their prospects. Who would you rather be? Company A or Company B?

(Hint: You’d rather be Company B.)

If social media is something you’d like to wrap your mind around, be sure to check out the eLearning Seminar at 60 Second Online University called How to Use LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube to Grow Your Sales and Revenue. In just 60 minutes, you’ll know more about social media than most other people in your office. Better still, you’ll know more about social media than your competitors.

And that’s a good thing, right?

Thursday, July 16th, 2009, 6:00 am   |   Social Marketing  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback