What’s Missing in Your Marketing?

Not getting enough leads? Are the quality of leads you are receiving suffering?

With the promise of social media and a new lower cost method of communicating with your prospects and customers…many companies are flocking to this new media expecting a rush of fans, followers and business opportunities. Why doesn’t this happen?

Let’s look at social media with a big dose of reality.

It is not a silver bullet or the magic switch. Not even close. It is, however, a fantastic use of technology as a one-to-one communications tool for reaching many people. It is also a great method for building a community that can achieve many goals (remember Egypt?).

What’s missing in many companies’ effective use of social media is the proper strategy. Often we see companies hiring someone to handle their “social” in-house with no direction, no thought of why. The only metrics they see are the number of Likes or Followers. True, these are data points, but what is missing is the plan of action or better yet…a policy.

To develop a solid social strategy, one must understand your own culture of communicating with your prospects and customers.

Stop being antisocial. Don’t treat your stakeholders as a cardboard cutout you’re constantly bombarding with information waiting for a response. You can’t control the message anymore…. your customers do and by using the proper social media community management guidelines, your brand can excel.

Umair Hague said it best in his blog posting on the Harvard Review, “Social strategies are about reinventing tomorrow. Their goal is nothing less than changing the DNA of an organization, ecosystem, or industry. Want to get radical? Stop applying 20th century principles (“product,” “buzz,” “loyalty”) to 21st century media. “ Do you agree?