Social Media Timeline: Social Marketing Has Been Around Forever!

Social Marketing Has Been Around for 2,500 Years

I mentioned in a previous post that social media in the 21st century isn’t much different than what people were doing 75 years ago.  Social media today is NETWORKING.  And we’ve been doing it for centuries!

There may be some new twists or applications, but it isn’t much different than the days of people meeting in the town square or at the general store, or more recently at a chamber function or conference.  When I speak or lead workshops, I have a slide that shows social networking/marketing technology going back to the first post office in Persia 500 years BC. The telephone was (and is) social media technology. Even the telegraph before that!

Most people think of social media technology as Twitter and Facebook, blogging, YouTube and LinkedIn. They’re all just new ways of having conversations, participating in communities and telling stories like we’ve done going back to Adam & Eve.

Only the tools and tactics have changed!

The new technologies make it easier to identify and connect with a wider audience than was available in the general store or on your neighborhood party line earlier in the social media timeline.

Business has been built developing professional relationships at business functions, church activities, outdoor barbecues, sporting events – anywhere a group of people gather – for a long time. Very often, someone will ask to be introduced to someone at one of these events. Usually there are followups. Ultimately, they know, like and trust someone enough to buy from them.

With the applications available today, it’s much easier to target those relationships in a much larger pool and when it’s convenient to do so.  Social media is not selling, but it is a way to get prospects into your sales funnel.

Networking on Your Schedule and Budget!

Can’t make the Business Before Breakfast at the Chamber tomorrow morning? No problem! You can find new contacts on LinkedIn after you put the kids to be tonight.

Can’t afford to exhibit at the trade show in California next month? No problem! Find qualified prospects on Twitter and begin engaging them, even if it’s 7am Sunday.

Have you blown your budget on local newspaper ads or Yellow Pages? No problem! Create a community using Facebook Fan Pages.

I’m not suggesting that social media replaces chamber membership or newspaper ads — social media is best used in conjunction with successful traditional marketing.

Do More in Less Time

Networking in this millennium is inexpensive marketing that allows you to time shift and effectively target your prospects in any market(s) you want!

And it’s not just conversations.  It’s videos, widgets, community building, bookmarking, online reviews…

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing!

B2B Magazine has a story on how companies fail to deploy social media because of time management or resources issues.  The study by r2interactive in Baltimore says that 42% of the 296 marketers who responded to the survey cited a lack of time and resources for not initiating a social media strategy.

I’m not surprised, really.  I hear that all the time.  (I think I’ve blogged about it too)

38% of the respondents said that not allocating resources to social media was a mistake!

I couldn’t agree more!

I would never advocate pouring resources into any project without an expectation of ROI.  What will you receive in return for researching the project, planning it, deploying it, evaluating it and revising it?

I think some of the pushback is that people don’t understand what social media is or how to implement it.  Some may be that people are afraid of it.  “What if someone says something bad about us?”  To which I respond, “Wouldn’t you rather know about it and be in a position to respond to it than to never know what people are saying?”  (And conversely, wouldn’t you want to know the positives that are being said about you?)

That’s a subject for a different post.

Also hampering social media initiatives, according to the survey, is that 56% of companies don’t have a written strategy in place and 45% have no plans to hire dedicated staff to manage it.

I should also post on both the lack of a formal strategy and hiring people to manage it, but the easy response is, “Just do it!”  In most cases you don’t need to hire dedicated staff – you probably already have people in-house who would love to Tweet, blog, Link or build a Fan Page and have experience doing it.  Who was it who said, “90% of success is just showing up.”  (Woody Allen)

I agree that you need a plan for a integrating social media into existing sales and marketing tactics for SMBs, especially MBs.  But it’s important to understand that social media isn’t something new. NETWORKING has been around for 2,000 years or more.  How we approach it today and the Web 2.0 tools of today make how we do it easier, faster and cheaper.  (Another blog post idea!)

Get started talking to people on Twitter.  Start a practice blog on Blogger or WordPress.com – you can keep it if you want to make it official.  Start learning about Facebook, especially Fan Pages.  You will develop relationships that lead to success.  I’d love to hear your results and I’m here if you want to talk.

It must be worth doing. 62% of respondents said they allocate up to 20% of their 2011 marketing budgets to social media.

If you’re short on time, evaluate the current activities that don’t generate an ROI and cancel them or put them on the back burner.

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing!”  Who said that?

Sounds like Yogi Berra, but it not.

It was me, Kurt Scholle, the Website ROI Guy!

By the way, I partner with Al Lautenslager at CertifiedSocialMedia.com where we train people how to use social media marketing, develop a plan, evaluate and revise.  Opt in for free and receive resources that can help you benefit from social media, whether it’s gaining sales, supporting customers, finding employees or simply monitoring your market and competitors.  We’ll send you a couple of the resource guides we use in class, links to actual training calls and other materials.  Put them to good use in the new year!

Top Google Searches 2010 in Chicago

Here in Chicago, 4 of the fastest-rising Google searches were education-related. The Zeitgeist list shows that the web portal of the Chicago Public Schools was #1. “UIC blackboard” (University of Illinois at Chicago) was second, followed by Northeastern Illinois University’s “NEIUport” at #7 and “Harold Washington College” at #10.

Google released lists of the hottest search terms for various cities in the US, ranking searches based on their uniqueness to that city. A search query is considered unique if it is “disproportionately popular” in a certain city versus the rest of the country, Google said.

A Google spokesman says that the economy has prompted people to better themselves or to make sure their kids are getting a good education.

Also in the Top 10:

#3 Chicago Breaking News
#4 CTA bus tracker
#5 Blackhawks schedule
#6 Metra train schedule
#8 Lollapalooza 2010 lineup
#9 Second City Cop

On a national level, “Geek was Chic.” The fastest-rising search term for 2010 was “ipad.” “Chatroulette” at #2 and “iphone 4” third on the list. Two smartphones from Nokia also made the list.

(Chatroulette is an anonymous video chat site that pairs two users in a private chat session.)

Justin Bieber debuted on the U.S. Zeitgeist list this year at No. 5. Last year, the top-ranking celebrity in terms of searches was Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson, Susan Boyle, swine flu and Slumdog Millionaire were among the Fastest Falling terms in 2010.

Find Google’s Zeitgeist List here.  It’s interesting to see what unique terms are rising in popularity, especially by regions of the US or globally.  Does it give you any ideas?