LinkedIn White Paper: Getting Connected  
LinkedIn Goes Beyond Your Online Profile

 Pressure to Reduce Marketing Costs- A Look at New Media and Word of Mouth Marketing

Companies that have large marketing budgets are looking for ways to cut costs and still have the same visibility to their prospective clients.  TV, Radio and newspaper advertising can be expensive as it requires repeated messages to be pushed out to the masses in the hope of attracting attention and convincing you to engage with the company.

Learn How To Use The Social Web To Its Fullest - Social Media For Lead Generation

You’re light-years behind if you haven’t hopped onto the social media bandwagon by now. Literally, ads are flashing all around you telling you to “get connected”, to look up a company on Facebook, or even to follow them on Twitter. In fact, you don’t even have to look around much; sit on a bus for five minutes and you’d probably overhear some chirp about social media sites without having to exercise your eavesdropping skills. For example, just hop on a bus for an hour. You’d expect to hear casual yak about the economy, current events, the traffic, or even the weather. Well then you’re in for a rude awakening. Men and women of all ages –and I mean all ages-- are talking about, yep, you guessed it, Facebook. Naturally you’d be prepared to hear it from teenagers; even those freshly allowed walking on the carpets and sitting in those famous cushioned chairs at Vegas poker tables…but middle-aged businessmen? You’d think it’s not every day you’d see a forty year old man poking at his blackberry catching up with his colleagues on Facebook right? And it’d be unusual hearing a fifty-five year old woman talk conducting a meeting centered on that famed cyber social spider web?

Think again.

Every flourishing company has been turning to social media sites to improve as a business by developing a better relationship with their clients. It’s a successful way to listen to clients’ needs and build a credible web presence that extends beyond your website. Furthermore, you can continue strolling down the social media route and use the social web to generate leads; I’m talking about using the social web to its fullest potential. So, hop on the bandwagon and thrust your company forward. Confused as to how exactly to do so? Don’t worry, I’ve jotted down some tips on how to acquire new business precisely by using popular social media sites and thrive in any metropolis by gathering leads using social media and by improving your email marketing expertise. There’s also a new Facebook applicaion from Constant Contact called Join My Mailing List app, contact us and we will set it up for you. After all, if your current and prospective clients are already there on Facebook, you should at least be in on the conversation and offer them more.

I’ve already name-tossed the site Facebook; the place where people share their thoughts on services they want or need. Warning: saying that this site houses a lot of people is an understatement; sifting through them to find a potential client when using the search feature to find someone who might need your help may be quite time-consuming but on the positive note, at least one person will fit your clientele description. Simply try searching “email marketing”, for example, in Facebook’s search feature, and on the left sidebar, look at the option to choose Posts by Everyone. You’ll see what I mean.

Twitter

Twitter is tremendously similar to Facebook and its search feature is one of the most powerful lead sourcing tools available. Using this, you can see in real-time what people are, as they call it, tweeting about. Just try searching “email marketing” again and you’ll see for yourself how many people are tweeting about it. No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you…there are undoubtedly hundreds of results. Just imagine how many of those people are looking for an email marketing expert; or perhaps an SEO expert? The list continues and the opportunities are endless. Now, you wouldn’t want these cries for help to get snatched up by someone else would you? 

I didn’t think so.

So here’s what you do: Search Twitter for your area of expertise. Find the leads. Then send them a friendly tweet letting them know you can help. Remember: people hate spam so don’t hit potential clients over the head with your pitch, and before you start hunting for leads make sure your Twitter profile outlines your expertise including links that point back to your credible website, portfolio, etc.

LinkedIn Networking

As you probably already know, LinkedIn is a fantastic place to network and join groups of like-minded professionals. To me, this screams opportunities for you to garner business but are you using it to do so? Perhaps it time you re-evaluated your account because LinkedIn is a perfect site to promote your services. Use it to your advantage. First of all, it’s important to add an offer to your profile updates. What’s more compelling to a potential client: “Looking for a new car?” or “get a free Email Marking analysis at WSI Quality Solutions and see what I can do for you!” My money’s on the latter choice. Also, make sure your specialties and summary include your strongest skills. To successfully drive business, I cannot express enough that your profile should showcase your expertise and back up your skills.

CraigsList Ads 

Finally, there’s the familiar Craigslist: much more of a barebones approach as opposed to the previous mentioned sites, but still a great place to find people looking for your expertise. All you have to do is use its search feature to look for “gigs” in your area that apply directly to your expertise.

Still feel like you’re not prepped enough yet to venture on your own and generate leads through social networks? There’s more information on the benefits and “ins and outs” of social media in these two white papers from Constant Contact. Go ahead, give them a read:

1. 35 Things You Should Know About Social Networks
2. Using Social Media to Extend Your Email Marketing Campaign Effectiveness

Network with us and we will see you on the world-wide social media web.

Lastely, please add a comment on your thoughts of this post or contact roy directly at Roy@WSIQualitySolutions.com.

Game Changing Book – “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk

This is a great book and we highly recommend reading it.  It is motivational, educational, and a great case study on the powers of social media. As Gary says in this video introduction of the book, with a flip cam and/or blog, anyone can create a video and publish to the world. This is game changing, shocking, and most businesses to not understand this new world. Read on to see out take-away points.

I find it ironic that ‘Crush It’ is on the book shelves next to ‘The Four Hour Work Week’  by Tim Ferriss. Both books are similar; the concepts conveyed are game changing for business. I like how these books provide the reader with motivation, ideas, and action steps that help you implement the concepts. The funny irony is Tim Ferriss shares ideas on how to get big things done by outsourcing everything and working few hours as possible. Gary suggests in his book, you need to work so hard your eye’s bleed.   

 Our Lesson Learned
--> Old media is dead – newspaper, radio, tv, yellow pages is spraying a message and praying someone has a need. 

--> 100’s of Billions are going to be spent in Social Media/New Media

--> Follow your passion and create your niche

--> Consuming content is in complete control of the user, it is consumed on their time, their format, and they can choose to interactive with that content or not

--> Marketing messages need to be in many formats and extremely targeted

--> Brands need to be transparent, you can’t control what is being said about your brand

--> Business does not have a choice, conversation is taking place


Click Image Above To See Video!

What's Happening in the World of Social Media These Days?
One of the many advantages of being part of the global company like WSI – ‘We Simplify The Internet’ is the access to research data and keeping tabs on the changing Internet environment. Like many aspects of the internet, the landscape of social media is continually changing and many of my clients contemplate (almost daily) if they need to be jumping in and participating in the conversations that are taking place online.

While I'm not saying that a social networking strategy is necessary for every business, I do recommend that everyone should at least take the time to understand what's out there so they can make an informed decision on whether or not to participate in the "online conversation" that may be taking place about them or their business. Our new 2009 Social Media Trends Report is a great starting point, loaded with information and statistics on what other businesses are doing in the area of social media.

2009 Social Media Trends Report - Download your copy today. It will be the best 11 pages you've spent time reading in a while, I guarantee!