Look beyond traffic and links and you will find the real value.Social media, and by that I’m lumping together blogs, RSS, social networking and social book marking sites, presents the marketer with a rich set of new tools to help in the effort to generate new business.
But, if that’s the only way you view social media, as a set of tools to perform a set of tactics to reach the set of objectives you have always tried to reach with your marketing, then not only are you really missing the opportunity, you will probably find yourself wondering what all the fuss is about.
As John points out in Duct Tape Marketing, social media is more than a set of tools. For personal use, social media might include the use of one network, but for businesses it’s usually the culmination of several social media sites, interlinked by RSS feeds that drive true connectedness.
For 2010, take some time to map out your strategy. Are you posting on Twitter, using Tweetdeck and physcially dragging and posting content in multiple places? Ask yourself if there is a better way – the answer is most likely yes. I’m not saying it’s easy to identify the best strategy or map out all the possibilities, but if you look at the big picture and outline your process, you’re bound to find some inefficiencies.
