In conversation today, the question came up about whether or not social media can truly benefit the average person or company…In some instances, the real question is about the true influence of its participants and in other instances, it’s about the medium. If you want to leverage people who can promote your business, drive traffic to your website and generate sales interest—where does the strongest sphere of influence exist? On Twitter, Facebook or outside the social media realm??
Anyone who participates in social media with the mere hope of getting people to tweet about them is missing the boat. You can certainly create awareness for yourself in a social community but you need to migrate to tangible activity in the real world where sales are made, jobs are offered, partnerships are created, etc. Social media is restricted by random elements such as the noise factor, time of day, quality of following, false levels of influence, etc. It may give you momentary visibility but not provide targeted value and purpose.
For businesses and professionals looking to gain tangible results, it’s important to use social media strategically and methodically. For example, social media may not be the most impactful or influential vehicle for your goals—but the people who reside in social networks just might be. Leveraging the right people is a bit tricky because authority in a social network may not translate into their daily life. As such, your main goal should be to gain key actions and support from the right people, in a medium that is most impactful for you. There are four simple steps to consider:
Step 1: Know what you want to accomplish
Step 2: Identify key people or companies and validate who they are beyond their Twitter ID
Step 3: Cultivate the relationship
Step 4: Close the deal/gain agreement on the desired behavior—such as actively promote you to their customers (in the optimal medium), buy from you, etc.
How you use social media depends upon your goals. You can work hard and only create fleeting awareness or you can work to create tangible results.
