Social Media Marketing is Good for Branding, But What About Business Development

Social media marketing is good for...

• Improving a company's reputation
• Spreading the word about its products and services
• Brand-building 
• Customer service
• PR

But, is it useful as a tool for sales prospecting and lead generation? According to a new survey, most small businessowners don't think so. 

A survey of 500 small businesses with less than 100 employees commissioned by Citibank and released just last week revealed that 75 percent of those surveyed don't use social media. Here's why...

"Our survey suggests that small business owners are still feeling their way into social media, particularly when it comes to using these tools to grow their businesses," said Maria Veltre, Executive Vice President of Citi's Small Business Segment. "While social media can provide additional channels to network and help grow a business, many small businesses may not have the manpower or the time required take advantage of them."

Small business owners don't have time to invest in marketing strategies that do not have a positive effect on the bottom line, especially during this tough economy.

Take my own company, Bizzuka, for example. We've done a reasonably good job of incorporating social media into the marketing mix, but have we seen it increase leads and/or sales? To some extent, yes, but not to the degree that I'd like. 

Case in point, a few months ago we rolled out a video series produced completely in-house, that talks about nine ways to use online media as a cost-effective marketing tool during the recession. It was widely received and the content avidly consumed. Even Dell picked it up and ran the entire nine-part series on their Dell Small Business blog. 

The result? Thousands of pageviews and video views. A brand-builder? Yes. Improved our reputation? Sure. Good for SEO? Yep. How about positive PR? Absolutely. Sales? Uh, not sure. Maybe not so much. 

Part of that is my own fault for not building into the campaign a way to measure leads generated from it. That was a severe oversight and patently inexcusable. 

Not only that, but we've been doing an Internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio for over a year called User Friendly Thinking. We've interviewed some of the Internet's top movers-and-shakers, everyone from Shel Holtz to David Meerman Scott to Robert Scoble, Ann Handley, John Jantsch, Toby Bloomberg, and the list goes on and on. 

As with the video series, for brand awareness and reputation building, it's been great. We've made lots of friends and the show gets high marks from colleagues. Has one lead or sale been generated from it? I can't say that it has.

Still, I have numerous case studies and examples that prove social media does work, and I'm going to get more. I'm also redoubling my efforts to prove its worth for Bizzuka. 

We're a small, regional B2B company that sells web design, web content management and Internet marketing services. There are lots of companies just like us in just about every town across this country. Still, I believe social media can be used to set us apart from the competition and bring in leads.

Small businesses, especially during these times, have to tighten their belts and their focus to achieve maximum results with minimal expenditure. The beautiful thing about social media is that it doesn't cost much, if anything, to deploy. So, if we fail, we can fail quickly and cost-effectively. I'm convinced we can succeed equally as well. 

What about you? What's your social media marketing success story? Share it in a comment. (I'm especially interested to learn how front-line sales people are using social media to prospect and generate leads.)

Comments

[James Malanowski]

I have a real estate web site I've been building and tweaking with WordPress since the beginning of the year. Content on the site is lacking so far since I'm one of those that's never quite satisfied. However, the few articles I've posted show up quickly on Google and get quite a few clicks.

The listings I've posted as articles ended up highly ranked and have made my phone ring. With this minuscule amount of testing, I can only imagine how well the site will do when I actually get the content in that I want.

This may not relate to your topic exactly, but my point is that Google likes blogs and WordPress tends to have decent SEO so if your goal is getting in front of people that haven't heard of you before, put up a blog site instead of (or in addition to) your static site and people will find you.

Hopefully, if your content is engaging, people will come back to you and you can form a community around yourself/your company and that will bring in more people. That is my theory, anyway ... Now just to follow my own advice! :)

[Ian]

Is there a balance that needs to be made between social and sales pitch...? Does any of your links direct people to an ad page...? What are your thoughts on single page landing pages...?

[Nile]

Social Media is good for business development too...any business. Social media = marketing. Hand in hand, it is flexible to cover any industry both online AND offline.

It is the way you get your business out there in front of peers, current customers, and potential customers. As an observation living in a small town (and with plenty of experience traveling and living in larger cities), a lot of small town businesses are afraid of this approach.

However, when it comes time - say for example Centralia has a yearly Balloon Fest that draws people from around the country. Social Media would boost more attention towards people they are trying to reach, especially during their fest or other big events. A nearby town that is almost the same size is fairing a lot better (Mount Vernon) because they do have a little more inkling about the dynamics of marketing and how to use the internet to push their content/ product.

And yes, you are right... small business owners do not have time nor money to invest in social media. I believe that making services more affordable for small business owners would be a big key, and overall benefit for people who already market others websites successfully. The conventions are nice, but a lot of them are really expensive... not sure whether due to speaker's fees, meals/ snacks (for those that include them) and combination of venue, but I have suggested more work to obtaining more sponsors to lower costs, especially for business owners that may have smaller pockets starting out.

As for my story, I have been blogging for over 6 years. I am a web and graphic designer, developed several websites for myself as well as clients, and helped market. I provide some webmaster tools as I have narrowed my focus of my site Blondish.net and separated my personal life to my mommy blog, and in the midst of still moving content. The refocus I started in December 2008 has brought my site from over 1.3 million rank in Alexa to 131K. All of my other sites in my network have also improved including my Short URL script and site I made and give for free.

Although I web design and dabble in webhosting, I have really found that even though I have focused on my other sites, I have actually gotten more business and I believe it is due to trust. I may give a lot, but I even in words, donations at times (as thanks for my php scripts people use), and my clients for my web design and hosting, I receive back just as much and maybe more. :) I have even been able to go back to school because of all of this too.

[twitter.com/fileitup]

Another great article Paul.

My two cents:

Keep in mind that even in this social era social media and sales are not equal. While there is a seismic shift away from one-way advertising/sales models social media in its pure form is not a direct replacement for "straight up sales".

If your target is to increase sales your strategy should focus on that, the channel should be social media.

Without a "call to action" people will just take your valuable information and add it to your "authority" or credibility.

[Paul Chaney]

It's a good theory James.

[Paul Chaney]

All good questions Ian. Balance is the key word. Can have both authentic conversations and calls-to-action if done correctly.

[Paul Chaney]

Wow! That's an extensive and well-reasoned response. Thanks.

[Paul Chaney]

That's true. Integrating social media and other channels is best. It has a place in the sales process though, to b sure.