Social Media is now and it has become more important, in some respects, to that of a website.  Gone are the days of traditional media where we are interrupted in our daily routines from marketing that pushes itself into our psyche via annoying radio spots, TV Commercials, newspaper ads, etc.  Nowadays, with technology being what it is, marketing has advanced from the push technique to the “pull” technique.

Good marketing today requires the ability to pull your prospects into the conversation.  Your content needs to be so good that your target “wants” to join conversation as opposed to being “forced” to.  Social Media is the means by which that happens.  However, having a FaceBook and Twitter account isn’t going to automatically pull the kind of people you want into the conversation.  The biggest issue I see with some businesses and marketers using social media as a means of generating leads and prospects is that although they are using new marketing tools their techniques are still old.

What does it mean to be using “old” marketing techniques?  Let me give you an example.  When I am readying through my FaceBook new feed, I am doing so because I’m interested in my “friends’” thoughts and/or news.  By thoughts I mean feelings on their current day at work, they great clothes my friend got on sale at Nordstrom’s or the announcement of marriage.  I DON”T go to my feed to hear what specials you are running for your business.  Nothing irritates me more than seeing a feed like this:

• … tough day at work today.  I think my boss is a spawn of Satan. JK!  LOL!
• … Just got back from King of Prussia Mall.  Bloomingdale’s was having a 30% off anniversary sale!
• … It’s official.  Mary Lou and I are getting married!
• … Joe’s Black Coffee Shop is open today at 9:00am!  The first cup is only 95 cents!  The second with whipped cream is $1.33.  If you bring in the coupon from the newspaper you’ll get .10 cents off you third cup of the day on the fourth friday of each month.  Offers limited to left handed red headed kindergarteners!

Now, which one doesn’t seem to belong?  I’m reading through my feeds and all of a sudden I am interrupted.  The flow of the feed has been broken because Joe doesn’t understand that Social Media is about starting the conversation and not interrupting it.  So how do you “start” a conversation as opposed to “interrupting” it.

When using Social Media as a means of promoting your company or product you have to always keep in mind that you are talking to your “friends”.  If your friends are standing by the water cooler you probably aren’t going to walk up and begin the conversation with, “Guys, Joe’s Black Coffee Shop serves the blackest coffee around.  It’s unique blend of coffee beans without milk makes it a truly magical cup of Java!”. So why would you do it on your social media account?

Instead of interrupting the conversation, start a conversation.  ”We are SUPER pumped to be opening Joe’s Black Coffee this morning.  I’m proud of our team for being able to develop such a black cup of coffee! Anybody else like coffee as black as I do?”  This type of status update helps to bring the first person excitement into the feed, engages an audience and asks a question to help initiate a conversation.  It feels like you’re being invited into the conversation as opposed to being talked to!

One of the most important rules that you should learn if you plan on using social media to promote and market  your product is that nobody cares about your product except for you! It was very hard for me to accept that in the beginning.  I wasn’t just interrupting the conversation when I started but I was damn near screaming over everyone else.  Once I settled down and realized that I was on my social media sites to reconnect and make conversation was I able to really begin to take full advantage of everything that online networking has to offer.

Today, I often find that using my social media networks as a means of what is was meant for has more than doubled revenue streams for the business.  Instead of constantly drawing people to the website and telling my friends what great deals we have I instead will announce how excited I am when I do close a deal with a prospect.  As an example, I recently closed a deal with one of the larger clients Rinish.com has worked with in some time.  I announced the partnership on my social media accounts and mentioned how excited I was.  When I do post these kinds of updates about the company I’m doing so in a why that shows through as excitement.  Because my excitement is shrines through not only did I subtly remind my network of the great work we do but they get to see the genuine excitement that I have for doing my work.   And how do I know this type of utilization of the social networking sphere works?  Take a look at the comment boxes under my status updates.  You’ll see the next person asking to talk to me about a website project they need to have done!