A recent study released by Business.com of 3,000 Professionals across the United States indicates that Social Media is alive and vibrant within the professional environment. Some of the compelling statistics that stood out:

-69% indicate they use Webinars and Podcasts to obtain business information
- 83% Chose Facebook as the overriding favorite of the social networks
- 7 social sites - The average company that responded stated they participated in
- 65% of them staffing the initiatives in-house
- 71% of responding companies had less than 2 years experience using social networks

If this doesn’t validate that business professionals use social media then perhaps the fact that LinkedIn (a business social site) has over 50,000,000 registered users or that Facebook is adding 500,000 New Users each day should confirm this.

Data is out there to support the growth of Internet usage, for social purposes, among business professionals. As a result of this expansive growth, many sites have risen to the heights of popularity and each of these domains has unique functions that have propelled them to this status.

The more that a company looks at this as an expense of resources and weighs the pros and cons of such an endeavor, the more risk they face at missing the opportunity to get people connected to them. Meanwhile, their customers and prospects are thriving online and excitedly, they’re connecting with like minded individuals in many different ways. They’re connecting on Community sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, CR4, Facebook, or any of the other popular domains. More myopically… they’re connected in Groups within these sites. They are most certainly connecting! Realistically, a company should look at this more as an investment of resources than an expense of resources.

In the following paragraphs I am going to explain the core components of what you can do to begin this plan and start servicing the people that matter most to your company. By no means is this a detailed plan. I will make suggestions using components that are FREE or of minimal cost. The most costly component will be time.

At the end of the day what you hope to create is a funnel. At the wide end, you message the masses in many ways in order to create interest in you and your Community. In the middle, you have your Virtual Community which is where your clients and prospects interact with peers and your company’s pros. The small end of the funnel is your website or your company directly. The result is keeping your people close to you and doing so in a way where they do not feel the pressure of sales but feel the essence of inclusion and bond.

The components that you should look to utilize in fulfilling the core of your initial plan are Management, Messaging, Community, and Participation.

Management – Designate a person or team that will dedicate time to organizing, implementing, and managing this side of your business. This is not a full time responsibility yet but it will be down the road. In time, you will want to create a position to act as the liaison to the aggregated Community. In the interim, it can be managed simply as part of the day to day tasks of your current team with an understanding that this piece of your current marketing effort will undoubtedly grow.

One of the initial responsibilities will be research identifying where the hot spots are on the net that attract your buyers. You can find this out by simply polling your current database and asking them directly where they go, what they do, and why they see value in these venues. You should also look to your current advertising partners and vendors. Ask them what they’re doing to satisfy their subscriber’s desire for Community. If they are active, they are working right now on this very same service. You will want to know what they are doing. Spend time using Search Engines to locate all of the domains that operate in the fields of expertise that your clients and prospects do. Search the groups and gatherings within these popular sites (And join them). Also, consider spending time speaking with some students at colleges that are pursuing careers in your target markets. Why? These important people will be buying your stuff in the coming years. They have their ear closer to the ground regarding the Internet and emerging technologies than you could possibly imagine. These folks will keep you ahead of the curve going forward.

You are gathering this information for two reasons. First, you’re going to be engaging with these resources to capture mind share, develop a following, and ultimately bring awareness of your Community. Secondly, in this process you will be developing an understanding of how this whole Community thing works. You will gain valuable knowledge that can then be leveraged in the construction of your own Community..

Community – All of the research that you have accumulated is for the purpose of escorting people into your Community of clients, prospects, and in-house pros. One of the benefits of having an established Community is that you can communicate, in near real-time, with your constituents. You can immediately get messaging out that could influence positive perceptions and have them work for you in utilizing the tools of Social Media to spread the word. Adversely, you can address and resolve many situations that could point a negative light on your company in venues that you are not active in.

A good place to start would be a facebook fan page on facebook.com. Developing this area is pretty simple and I’ve provided a link on the right (and within). From a personal perspective, your targets have a familiarity with this venue as it pertains to keeping up with their own personal networks. Facebook gives you the opportunity to be where they are. It means that you are in their neighborhood. Your clients and prospects can become “Fans” of your business page and they can see what other “Fans” have to say about their experiences with your company. Facebook, like a mini-site within a site, also gives you additional functions to provide for your “Fans” including Events, Additional Info, Press, Discussions, Video, and a “Wall” which becomes your primary landing page. People speak on your wall in the form of brief messages. The nuances of this informative resource can be discussed in a later writing but it is a powerful ancillary benefit of Social Media.

I referenced Facebook and strongly encourage you to have a presence here but you will find other reputable venues that offer similar functions. You should be there too. Do not limit your exposure and take advantage of every venue out there that is relevant to your demographic. However; you should make every effort to point them to a single source and I do think that Facebook is a good place. It is all about Aggregate and the more people that you can get to stick to your Community the better off you will be in terms of management, analysis, and messaging.

Good examples of Business Fan Pages: Sprint - GM – Girl Scouts – Papa Johns Pizza. (Require facebook registration to access)

Messaging  – This is the fan to the fire of your Community build and management. NO ONE will know that your Community exists unless you make them aware. You will want to harvest your House List and create an ongoing campaign that encourages them to seek out and join your Community. A series of email messages incorporating the link to your Community and informing them what you hope to accomplish with their involvement. Additionally, this message should be included in your periodic Newsletters and informative correspondences. Many of the resources outlined above offer the ability to embed your link to your representation in the form of a graphic in your emails and websites. USE THEM!!!

Going forward, this will become a permanent inclusion in all of your marketing and communications. Hundreds of millions of connected individuals have spoken in the form of action that this is here to stay. Once you create the Community you will always see the need to feed it. You should require the links as part of the email Signature of each employee, include logos and links on letter head, speak of it in your automated telecom systems, and include it in ALL Mar-Com materials. You need to drive people to your Community page. This is NOT about traffic. The more encouragement you give to your prospects and clients to enter and contribute to your Community, the more effective it will be for you. The best way to encourage is to consistently keep access to this portal at the fingertips of people you want to be close to your company.

Participation – This is where you get other members of the company on board and involved with your Community. Designate a representative from Customer Service, Sales, IT, etc. to keep an eye on the subject matter being discussed and to access the messaging features that you choose to utilize. Near real-time response goes a long way today in satisfying a question, comment, concern, or buying question. Put your best people in line to represent your company to your Community.

In addition to your own Community site, your company can gain a lot of credibility in other forms of participation within the sites that feed your Community. I have referenced LinkedIn a number of times and I do so as I believe that this is a great resource in meeting and connecting with like minded professionals across all spectrums of careers. In the sense of participation LinkedIn has a fantastic number of Groups that represent everything from Candy Makers (1,900 Members) to Orthopedic Surgeons (295 Members). In these groups are ways to seek job opportunities, review the latest news, and post & participate in discussions. It would only add value to your brand and the build of your Community if you had people from your company involved in these Groups as well. Again, you will want your company representative to communicate their messaging in non-salesy language and provide access to your Community page or corresponding web page (which also will have a link on it that can allow a person clicking-through to join your Community / Fan Page). Also you can look to your Vendors and their websites as a forum to leverage your community. Talk with them to understand how you can interact with their members as well. It could be through editorial content, sponsorships, advertising tools, or they could have Groups within their domains that allow your people to participate in discussions or answer relevant questions. The objective is introducing people to your Community.

Twitter - What is it and how can it help me help my business grow? Simply put, twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.(their words exactly). This is how it works: You set up an account under your company name and you begin “tweeting” (sending relevant 140 character messages from your account to your followers). You get followers in a number of ways. You broadcast your twitter name in all of your media and communications and get followers organically, you can share “tweets” with informative content and your followers will “re-tweet” out to their network increasing followers if your content is valuable to them, and you can share tweets sent to you from your network of followers with the rest of your followers. There are certainly many other ways to increase followers but they are complicated and best saved for a later time. These basic methods will build your following and over time, you will be quite surprised at the ongoing growth. The key to success using twitter is to continuously feed the following with relevant information w/o trying to sell to them. Whether it’s a new Data Sheet, New Product Announcement, Appointment of Personnel, Discount, Recall, Discontinuation, Award, Acquisition, New Technology, New Equipment, New Client, Webinar, On-line Video, Job Opening, Investor Messaging, and anything else that positively influences your company’s perception within your constituency. Twitter allows you to get messages out in real time in 140 character snippets. Twitter, is an extension of your company’s Mar-Com resources and doesn’t necessarily tie directly into the Community environment being discussed here. However, your presence and participation within this domain allows for a number of ways to direct people back to your Community and to your website. This is another piece of the Social Media puzzle.

Social Media on the Cheap is possible and not that difficult an endeavor.

1) Create a Fan Page on Facebook

2) Involve yourself with as many social networking resources as possible

3) Create Profiles of your company everywhere possible

4) Encourage employees to contribute to discussions / answer relevant questions

5) Blog about business issues your company can resolve

6) above all else – point them back to a Community (Facebook Fan Page) and allow them functions to interact with you and with each other.

The reality of Social Marketing or Social Media is that it really is not that overwhelming. It does require an investment of time in terms of management as well as learning the tools that are at your disposal. If you begin by developing a plan utilizing these simple resources you have the starting point in creating your own personal foot print in the world of Social Media. More importantly, you are on the way to creating a long term relationship with all of the people that matter most to your business’ success.

My Two Cents…

In the new millennium the selling landscape has changed dramatically in favor of the customer. The Internet has erased many boundaries that once existed for us in terms of the amount of ‘pre-purchase’ research we can do. This includes, and is not limited to, price comparison, product comparison (measuring one product against a similar), value-added services (Warranties, maintenance, freebies, etc…), availability, and even finding out what other buyers have to say about it.

Gone are the days when we have to buy what was stocked at our local store/distributor. And when we were only aware of what was being promoted in a favorite magazine or on TV. Gone too, are the days when our local sales rep was the trusted source of all knowledge encompassing “that product”. Heck, even the days when we were loyal to a specific brand are history. We do not live in that world any longer! Today, we have the power of research at our finger tips and most of us leverage it whenever we can. We, as consumers in just about every realm of the buying world (whether in B2B or B2C), are empowered with the ability to make smarter buying decisions. What’s more powerful than that? Well, how about the notion that we can pull the trigger on a purchase when WE are ready?

All of this plays into the scenario above. With all of the power that we as consumers have in decision making, there are fewer opportunities to get in front of us buyers during the “Selling/Buying Cycle”. The fact is in challenging times the buyers are further apart and harder to get to. What surprises me is the lack of effort that XYZ’s company extended in trying to win my business. They had all of my contact information, knew what I was looking at, and had the opportunity to immediately market or sell to me in a One to One setting. They failed miserably in seizing my attention at a point in time when I was interested in their products. They failed in either not training the Sales group to be more diligent in following up with their ‘leads’ in an expedient fashion or they failed in waiting 3 weeks to act on my interest.

Let’s flash back ten years to 1999. If I was interested in a your product I would call an 800 number from an advertisement in a magazine, call an 800 number that was on a television show, or stop by a local store. In all aspects I would engage with a person who would then have my attention and answer my questions and then direct me through a ‘controlled’ buying process. Today, if I have an interest after seeing an advertisement in a magazine or on TV I can go to several destinations on the Internet, learn what I need to about the product, and buy it whenever and wherever I want..

I posted a poll on LinkedIn for 1 week between March 31, 2009 and April 7, 2009. The poll asked the participants how they would compare a fully registered website generated to the following types of Lead Events:

A Purchased List Lead
A Trade Show Lead
A Call-In Lead
A Walk-In Retail Lead

http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/30210/xazce

Not the most scientific poll I agree. It generated 169 responses and was accessible in Groups where Sales and Marketing Professionals frequent. The resulting answers did not surprise me any. 58% Compared a website generated Lead Event to either a Call-In or Walk-In Lead. Moreover, 91% compared website generated Lead Events to a Trade Show Lead or better. NINETY-ONE Percent!

Now, would you wait 3 weeks to call on or market to any of those three Lead Events? Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon story. Many companies do not put enough effort behind the follow up of website generated Lead Events. Unfortunately, most businesses lack a clear cut method or campaign that addresses people that are raising their hands and expressing an interest in the very products that they’re marketing.

This is not to say that everyone that comes to your website or generates these types of Lead Events is coming to your door with a bag of money in hand wanting to buy 6,000 widgets. What it does signify is that these people have intent and interest when they arrive at your website or the portal that provides these Lead types. They’ve given you valuable information in exchange for your information and hence the sales cycle begins (Or should begin).

Companies will spend thousands of dollars to buy lists of people who may or may not have an interest in their products or services only to spend thousands more dollars to market to these maybe or maybe not interested people. Companies will also spend tens of thousands of dollars in marketing to drive people to their website and still approach any lead generation with lackadaisical enthusiasm if any enthusiasm at all.

This ailment doesn’t necessarily limit itself to marketing departments; it permeates the sales division also. All too often the Sales Professional will pick up the telephone on a website generated Lead Event and bluntly ask the prospect “How many do you want to buy today?” Without any sort of qualification, they assume that the person had their wallet out while they were typing in the web address. As with any Lead Generation, Sales Training is important when following up these Lead types. Understanding the motive or intent of the prospect is critical. How did they get there? What did they do while they were there? How does the complexity of your sales cycle influence the type of sales messaging? (If you’re selling valve actuators to the municipality industry your sales cycle is far more complex than someone selling golf clubs)?

These Lead Events can offer a ton of value in the long term as well. With each prospect you are growing your ‘House List’ and increasing the breadth of your pipeline. In challenging times like we are experiencing today, a substantive House List can impact the bottom line with less dollars being invested into external marketing. (See my blog ‘2009 – the Year of Frugality ‘)

In 2009 the buying process has changed. The buyer is now in control and the longer you wait to address them after they have expressed interest you are going to lose the sale. The Shelf Life of a website generated Lead Event is as long as the attention span of an interested buyer:

It lives as long as a gallon of milk left on the breakfast table in direct sunlight.

My two cents…

Everywhere you turned “last year” (at least from July onward) news outlets were broadcasting horrifying news on the economy. It seemed that each day the news became more polarizing and dismal as (bad) records were being met and set in the areas where one doesn’t want to be recognized. It was bad for business and bad for consumers. Nuff said!

We enter the New Year with new goals, new objectives, new strategies, and new directives. Our budgets are smaller and we (as marketers) have to help our business (employer) grow regardless. That’s it! No “if’s”, “and’s”, or “but’s” involved. “…Be happy that you have a job and find a way to accomplish these tasks with the restricted budget’s that you have to work with…” If not being said – is being thought – by most everyone who controls a Sales and/or Marketing department today. It is a reality and it is what 2009 is going to be about whether it is embraced or not.

I’m going to be bold here and call 2009 “The Year of Frugality”. Or, for those who like real words/phrases,… 2009 will be “The Year of Fiscal Responsibility”. My thinking is that it will transcend across both the business as well as individual consumer philosophical approaches to spend. And get this… It could even become the norm for life beyond 2009. Humorous it is how history consistently repeats itself. I’d bet that there are millions of Grandparents out there anxious to share their stories about how they learned the lessons that we’re learning today. In the “…I told you so…” context of course.

How are we supposed to help our business grow with less money? Short answer: HARD WORK! Sure, kind of a generic answer to a complex one line question but it sum’s it up accurately. Shame to you if you haven’t spent the last 90 days deeply analyzing every single Sales and Marketing resource that you invested in during 2008. Perusing the headlines of any news outlet in calendar Q4 should have prompted thinking about how you were going to fare as the year wound down. If you haven’t – consider this your scolding and get to it.

You should have a firm understanding of the “results” of each of your endeavors. If your marketing “endeavors” were/are untraceable, then you’ve just uncovered the first line items nixed from the upcoming budget. Hands down… with today’s technology your marketing dollars should only go to resources that can clearly identify a proof of performance. If they cannot, then quite frankly… you are just throwing your companies revenue out the door. (My minds eye sights a stack of $100′s sprouting wings and flapping them until the money becomes a mere dot in the background… peaceful yet depressing) Humorous but true. Conversion in Marketing is the equivalent of measuring Sales’ performance by seeing cold hard data on sales revenues. It is (or should be) the end all for evaluation of the success of a marketing initiative. Historically, Marketing has been an illusive business expense to really tack down. As executives are scrutinized exhaustingly on justification of any spend, pressure to produce a ROI (Return on Investment) in Marketing has inspired many ways to account for the spending associated with getting the word out. Simple analysis can be performed with badge swipes at Trade Shows, Website traffic, “Click-Throughs” in Internet Marketing, Polling results from the receptionist “How did you hear about us?”, and (I giggle some here) the Bingo Cards from the print advertising you did are just a handful of basic examples. Many of us are beyond these analytics but it is important to bring it up regardless. The essence of this refresher is to not overlook the obvious.

Ideas of 2009 strategy that we had in June of ’08, in many cases, are not lost. Much of what was intended can still be performed although we all need to take a serious look at where it is going to be done at. A simple understanding of and an honest – un-biased – look at 2008 performance metrics will help you understand where your best venues are and what type’s of messaging to leverage for maximum results.

Holding your vendor’s feet to the fire for any and all information to support why you would want to do business with them this year is another critical component to optimizing your budget effectively. My recommendation is for you to invite all current and potential vendors to “present” to you why you should consider them for a Sales and or Marketing resource. Perhaps something as simple as an RFP being submitted to all potential suitors outlining what your intentions are in 2009. Taking it a step further, designate a “Media Day” or “Media Week” and schedule appointments in specified blocks of time. Give them the opportunity to show you how they can help you or how they can not. Either way, it is your best opportunity to know your environment better and make more qualified decisions regarding your budget. NOTE: Your business does not have to be a mega-million dollar organization to host these types of events. As a potential buyer of media many of these vendors will go to great lengths to try to win your business. Believe me when I say that many…many…many of the companies in the vast industry of Marketing Services are very nervous right now and are excited at the opportunity to make your sale. They could even be conducted via telephone and Webinar to optimize time and help you filter the list without interrupting your work-flow.

To take this a step further it is important that your potential vendor is knowledgeable. I say this tongue in cheek however the more that they know about what you want to accomplish the better they can tailor their value offering to you specifically. Don’t just settle for the Sales Rep that takes your call. They could be new to their company, industry, and even new to your industry. I’d recommend requesting a manager or an executive from this potential partner to be in attendance too. These folks will help keep the meeting on-point and be more effective during the Q&A. No one likes to hear “… let me get back to you on that…”

My last tid-bit of dialog on the “Year of Frugality” is really geared towards “Personalization”. Let’s step back a second and imagine if you had NO BUDGET at all for 2009. What would you do? I mean there would be no Trade Shows to plan for, no deadlines to miss, no photo shoots to send the Intern’s off to, no nothing…. Except….. harvesting opportunity from the “list”. Ya know, the “list” of contacts generated from years of marketing and sales efforts. All the people in your rolodex™ or for the sophisticated marketer… your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database. You might even have some information in there on these people including physical and email addresses. Maybe even some notes on what your people were talking to them about in the past. This is extremely valuable in a tight economic climate in that you can (and should) develop a strategy to engage with these potential customers. Personalizing your message to a consumer is talked about frequently in Sales and Marketing circles these days primarily as a result of the Internet’s ability to capture and, in some instances, organize personal contact intelligence. From Database Marketing to One-to-One Direct Marketing, “RELEVANT” communication helps build Brand Awareness, Brand Integrity, and assists tremendously in getting Sales messaging out to a variety of targets.

This method is affordable in that many of us have an established “Contact’s List” or CRM system to begin with and an initial launch could be as simple as a well crafted email campaign. The first few ‘runs’ will allow you time to clean the list and then you can firmly establish criteria for structured lists going forward.

Furthermore, as a consideration to the previously mentioned “vendor” hunt, it would be in the best interest of your company that you expect this type of intelligence as a result of “Conversion” in any of your Marketing investments going forward. For your investment in partnering with a vendor combined with the technology that exists today it should be a common practice for them to deliver Full Contact Intelligence on every person who acts on your messaging. My company has always provided this type of tangible ROI (and we’ve been doing it for close to 13 years now) I can always share some of my best practices if they (your vendor) do not.

So, 2009 is going to be an interesting year for us all and my intent is to share some of my experiences and insights on how to take advantage of Smart Marketing in rocky economic times. I’ve helped my customers through tougher times and there are ways to glide over them with success. I’ve tasked myself with knowledge sharing this year so watch this space for more.

James Bishop has 19 years of B-to-B Sales experience coupled with almost a decade of Internet Marketing Consultation to provide him a vast wealth of insight and knowledge that, if shared, can enhance any company’s strategic efforts. You can read more at http://www.jamesebishop.com or submit questions to his email address: jamesb@nycap.rr.com