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Goodbye Privacy, Hello Sales? 

Social Media is all around us.  There is no avoiding it, no ignoring it.  It is in-your-face contact with the world… 24/7.  Say goodbye to the days of privacy – because what happened last night will stay between you, me, and the 400 million people on Facebook.  

While Facebook and other social media sites have pretty much shut the door for individual privacy; it has opened a window to a new marketplace of potential customers for marketers.  The social media world is what I could only imagine would be a marketers dreamland:  People writing out exactly what their interests are, how old they are, what gender they are, and the list goes on (and on and on).  With all this information literally at the tip of a marketers fingers, all that is left to do is figured out how to get your message across to these easy, open targets. 

Thus the introduction of the professional world, to the crazy social world – a combination that was bound to change – well everything.  With the entrance of businesses into the social media world, marketers could now do something they quite certainly had never dreamt of before, they waited.  They waited for the customer to find them.  Facebook is less of a push market and more of a pull market.  It is the crazy flip-flopped world where everyone is looking for you and not the other way around.  Of course there are some things the marketer must do other than wait around for customers to come knocking.  They need to create a site that will keep the customers attention – for more than three seconds.  Because like I said there are 400 million people on Facebook and the average person has 60 links to their page, plus you have to include how many companies have created Facebook pages, so what does that leave you with?  A lot math beyond my capabilities and more importantly – competition for people’s time – just like anywhere else – except on the internet you need to find other ways of getting the persons attention – there are no commercial breaks on the internet folks. 

So how can a marketer get said customers attention?  Creativity and personalization – relationships first, selling second.  This may shock some readers.  Because for a very long time we’ve been told (and rightfully so) that making the sale is key to success and while this is still very true, it is not the entire truth.  Think of it this way if your grandma came and asked you if you would buy one of her cookies and person X asked you to buy their cookies, who are you going to buy from?  Grandma, of course and why wouldn’t you?  You have a relationship with her that is more important than the product itself and so you buy because of that and not solely because of the product that you are being offered. 

So what does Facebook have to do with grandma’s cookies?  A lot actually.  Facebook is the connection between you and the customer.  It is HOW you start creating a relationship with your customer.  So get out there and start to build a relationship because the next thing you know, you’ll be increasing your sales.

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