Yes, yes, we all know (or hear about) all those social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace – and those tools like Linkedin, blogs and iPhone Aps.
So who cares that Tommy is going off now to brush his teeth? And what is all that chatter? Skip all that. That’s the consumer play that created critical mass.
These are the 21st Century communications networks. Used strategically, each of these tools, channels and networks combines to create an integrated marketing and sales campaign about your business.
If you dig beneath their consumer face, these sites and tools have developed ways to:
-
promote your business, product and services,
-
position your products and services to new audiences and new markets, both broad and niched; and to
-
create your own worldwide, online marketplace for the sales of your products and services.
The key is to understand that each social media network is a different distribution channel used for a different purpose, to reach a different kind of target audience, for delivery of different kinds of media, products and services, at distinct price points and margins.
The secret to using these new tools is not new—it is the basis for all sales and marketing campaigns: you must know what result you want from your efforts, what return on investment you will gain, and how to achieve it.
The challenge of using these new social networks is to learn what to offer to reach which audience that can be targeted by each of these new distribution channels.
This includes your knowing:
-
what is unique about your offering (product or service).
-
how to message that unique value proposition with which media for
-
each targeted audience
- each distribution channel that will deliver it
- the appropriate price point for each audience reached through each channel
- the return on investment for moving each offering through each channel at each price point, and
- whether it is worth the effort to build the offering and the channel.
You must segment your target markets, use each channel or tool for optimal impact, and strategically focus on the results each can bring you. Then you must integrate the use of many of these efforts at once to drive the highest results.
I am now working with my clients on leveraging social media to drive revenue to their bottom lines, and offering workshops on this at national conferences. The next conference is the WITI Summit in Santa Clara on June 16th 2009; see http://www.witi.com/center/conferences/2009/summit
This week on this blog we will explore the strategies and tactics of leveraging social media to drive revenue to your business. Stay tuned.
