The Community Factor - Social Media

I have been trying to figure out something that probably has been blatantly obvious to the rest of the world, what is all the buzz about social media? Why is it growing like it is? It finally dawned on me; it allows anyone to create a community in minutes. Simple, right. Why is that important? You ask good questions, I will tell you. When it comes to marketing whether it is local or global, the rule of thumb is he who has the biggest list wins. The key is that the list should be targeted and focused. By joining a social media site such as Facebook and Twitter you become part of a large group of millions of users. Once you are a member you create subgroups or interest groups such as a Fan Page on Facebook. Once you have this Fan Page up you can get your friends to promote it for you and before long you can build a more focused list. At this point you have an opportunity to monetize your time and effort.

The whole key is building clusters of groups with similar interests or communities. Then add value and content to keep this community engaged. Once you do that you can start to share what you have to offer by way of products, seminars and services. Literally, when done well, you can be selling on the internet in weeks and months instead of years.

What kind of community do you want to build? What kind of community are you a member of? Now how can you apply this to what you do and how you do it?

All a flutter for Twitter

Okay, I will admit I do not understand exactly how to use Twitter yet as a business tool to increase business, but I am enjoying the process of learning it. It is actually starting to grow on me. I have quickly gotten quite a few followers in a short time. I am also following quite a few myself. I love that it interfaces with Blogger and Facebook. Post once and distribute all over. Super idea! I like that I have to learn to be concise in my thoughts and judicious in my words. The more I spend on line trying to understand the cyber world, the more I realize just how small the world is and we truly are a global community. So why does there have to be so much war.

Blogging & Social Media -- What's all the buzz

Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have heard about blogs. But what about social media? What is all that about? Is it for business?


Here are some statistics to show you just what is being said about Social Media:

• 48% of business leaders spend 2-5 hours a week using social media tools to generate leads and find new clients (Source: socialmediaiq.com)
• 42% of sales managers view blogs and podcasts as very important sales generating tools (Source: MarketingSherpa)
• Of the Top 8 most visited sites worldwide, 5 are social networking websites – MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Live.com, YouTube (Source: eMarketer)

I had the pleasure of meeting Leesa Barnes in September at a conference that we both attended. Her book Podcasting for Profit was literally in the presses and being published the next week. I learned a lot from her about Social Media. I wasn't surprise then when I got an email about her telesummit she is putting on about this subject. I must say I think it is very exciting and very innovative. I am also amazed the low investment to be able to learn cutting edge material from all the experts in this field. If you want to know more about Social Media and how you can use it to blow your business out of the water and take it to new heights, then I recommend you check out this site: Social Media Telesummit 2008. I think you will be amazed by what you will learn.