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T
he arrival of the large number of social media
platforms is not something to fear and resist. Social
media offers any wise entrepreneur a number of
new ways to communicate and research his markets.
Embracing social media and using all the amazing
benefits it offers will allow your business to stand
head and shoulders above the competition. The most
effective way to leverage all the benefits offered by
social media is to use a blend of traditional marketing
and networking strategies, combined with a targeted
social media strategy.
Effective, traditional marketing and networking
strategies were always about targeting the right
market, identifying the right organisations or people,
within those markets and then communicating the
right message to them. The objective was and still
is to connect with these people, so that they could
get to know like and trust you and your product and
service. Using traditional methods to market your
business, such as print media, radio, television would
be pointless, unless you knew who your target client
was and how best to reach them. The same basic
business principals hold true for any social media
marketing strategy.
Effective traditional networking where you would
develop, mutually beneficial, connection with the
right people, required face to face meeting and
developing meaningful connections with people,
who could make a difference in your life or business.
This has not changed with the advent of social media.
Social media has simply accelerated the pace at
which you can identify prospective people to connect
with. The incredible volume of useful background
information, which is available on the various social
media platforms, is a powerful tool to help you get to
know your prospects and clients better.
An effective social media strategy is not about
building massive networks of thousands of distant
connections. To be effective you must use the
information available through social media, to
research and get to know your prospects better. To
get the most from your social media marketing and
networking strategy, you must know who your ideal
client is, what their needs are and where to find them.
Traditional marketing and networking strategies were
never effective unless they were targeted at the right
people in the right place. The same is true for any
strategy, which utilises social media. Carefully select
and target individuals, consistently communicate with
them, always trying to add value to them. Over time
you will build a network of raving fans, who will not
only buy your products or services, but who will be an
important part of your marketing strategy too.
Social Media as a Networking Tool
Non-relational approaches to networking can
never work. Faceless websites, handing out bucket
loads of business cards at conferences or sending
pointless mass emails is not only ineffective, but
can actually drive potential connections away from
you. Networking is never about quantity, it is about
the quality of relationships you can develop and
sustain. The way your business or life turns out is
directly proportional to the quality of meaningful
relationships you can develop and most importantly
sustain.
In this very competitive market place it is imperative
that we are known. It is impossible to be needed if you
are not known. So yes social media does serve as an
opportunity to create awareness about what you and
via social media. There is no easier or effective way
to get prospects to trust your business than getting
a raving fan to write about it on your social media
platforms. People may doubt the truthfulness in an
advertisement, but they will always trust any feedback
from an independent third party. Building great
businesses and personal success is about building
trust in the market. Real meaningful trust is delivered
through references, endorsements and testimonials.
Your social media strategy must be designed to invite
feedback from your clients.
Social media allows us to have access to massive
quantities of people. This is great as it means that we
can easily access the people that we have targeted
and discover how we can connect with them. We can
research them and get to know them even before we
meet them. When you have only 100 friends in your
first line of connections, you can easily access over
10 000 people by association through LinkedIn. Wow
that is power, which you could use to research and
discover the right people to connect with.
The power is not in the fact that you can spray a
meaningless message out to so many people. The
power lies in the fact that you have access to such
an incredible data base, from which you can draw
to develop your targeted networking or marketing
strategy.
Become a value adder in the social media arena.
Create awareness around who you are. Become part
of the conversation that goes on in the social media
arena and you are developing the
first tier of connection with people.
It is only when you target people
and you take the conversation out
of the social media realm that you
can really leverage social media and
turn it into something that will work
for you.
Pray and spray tactics never worked
before the advent of social media
and the internet. These same tactics will not work now
either. Human psychology is fundamentally still the
same, technology can help us to become global and
have access to masses of people, but fundamentally
we are still the same. We still have the same desires,
needs and ways we operate and we still want to do
business with people or businesses we know, like and
trust.
To Network and
Market using Social
Media or not to, that
is the Question
your business offer. Awareness does not create trust
or meaningful connection. So if it is purely awareness
that you want to create in the market place, then by
all means continue to spray a diluted message into
the market place via your social media platforms and
pray that someone will see it, need it, trust you and
then approach you.
On the other hand you can identify your target
market, companies and individuals within those
markets. Combine your social media and traditional
networking strategies. Research these companies
and individuals, using social media and Google
and then develop a targeted strategy to approach
these companies and individuals. The background
information can be used to connect with these people
at networking events or face to face meetings. This
targeted approach, where you know exactly who
you want to meet, connect and develop meaningful
and mutually beneficial relationships with. Places
you at a huge advantage over your competitors, who
go unprepared to any networking or face to face
meeting, hoping to bump into the right person and
then connect with them.
All it takes is just one great mentor, coach, friend or
individual who is willing to share an insight or make
a really important introduction and you will catapult
your life or business to amazing new heights. So is
it not worth the effort to identify the right people
who could make a difference in your life, either by
purchasing your products or services or guiding and
helping you and then researching
them to get as much background
info on them as possible. The
time invested in this endeavour
could deliver returns, which would
astound you.
Although social media has opened
new doors of possibility to us,
it still remains crucial to build
credible relationships with people
and to get personal references
and referrals from them. Social media has just made
it easier to research and communicate with all these
important people on a regular basis. It has also made
it easier to share any testimonials you receive from
any clients, with targeted individuals, via your social
media platforms.
The best way to use social media is to get your
clients to endorse you and your product or service
Andrew H rton
http://www.andrewhorton.co.za/