2010 February

Whether you're 50 or 15 your time consists of some balance of real and virtual experience.

Most of us understand how vital it is to maintain a healthy ratio. Why? Because we can't hear our voice until we have silence. We don't transform ourselves while we're engaged with an electronic image or sound -- we grow into our potential when we focus inward, or when we engage other people and discover ourselves through them.

So although we can have a myriad of pseudo experiences online (networking, sharing, communicating, selling, etc.), and although they can bring us good results, there are things that cannot take place in the transaction --  in one way or another there will always be something blocking a full human experience. And we all happen to be human…still.

What does this have to do with marketing? Marketing requires the same balancing of our real and virtual worlds. Online marketing, and primarily social networking for most small businesses, can throw off that balance in the blink of an eye. Although business owners wear different hats and can seem to do it all, nothing really surpasses the marketing time spent on social networking. It’s a technical skill anyone can learn and endless hours can easily be spent with no real value. So we should manage not only the time we dedicate to it, to be sure that we’re not avoiding what is for some the more difficult person to person contact, but we should protect that precious creative space where innovation starts, because that's where we go to truly connect to our customer through product development, communications, sales and so on.

When you're working on a computer your focus is very narrow, although your mind may be racing at full speed. Not much compares to the way the mind and eyes focus on the computer screen. It may be comparable to driving or flying a plane, except that our bodies are not involved. In fact our breathing becomes shallow, we don't blink much, our bodies can become dead weight and our psychology changes -- if the computer freezes we think we made a mistake, or we get angry and frustrated with an inanimate object that we need more but control less than almost any other in our daily work lives. This makes the computer, and the online world a valuable yet potentially dangerous place to spend our time as business leaders if we don't maintain a balance with our creative source -- offline. 

The questions I get most these days are about social networking. "Do we need to be on Facebook? Do we need a Twitter account? What should we do?

It's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all answer. And just like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a few years ago, there are plenty of experts out there ready to tell you what will put you ahead of the massive crowd. But like anything in the online world, the answer has to do not only with technical aspects, but also with the type of business you're in and how much time and money resources you have to work with. And the answers can change at anytime. The online world changes overnight. And often.

Most businesses should have a presence on social networking or other member based websites, and if you're an events based business your social networking should be maximized. The first step is deciding which ones are necessary for your industry and market, and in some cases, securing your name. This insures that your name can't be taken by anyone else – the same as you would for you website domain.

Planning your social networking activities will be unique for your business and customer needs. Your startup plan of action should have two parts: 1. Top of mind marketing and 2. Promotional marketing.

Top of Mind. Just like a website presence, you may not be able to draw a direct correlation between it and your sales – but you know without it you are not in the competition. Your brand has to be out there. So decide what your basic presence will be. Your logo? Of course. Basic copy writing, photos, etc? Develop your plan with regard to all of your other online marketing – your total online brand picture. Plan how your accounts will link to each other. Repurposing content is great, but each account should have a unique angle.

Promotion. The plan for selling your product or service using social media should include how often and how much time you will spend to make updates, special offers, posts, adding friends, and responding to communications. Especially if you do this yourself, but even if you have a staff – this should be mapped out in advance, along with the objectives and goals for your campaigns. If you decide you can afford to spend 5 hours per month on social networking, stick to it. If you don’t see value, don’t spend more time needlessly, rather, revisit your plan and tweak it as necessary. Your social networking plan may include advertising -- be very careful to match your ad campaign dollars to your goals.

We live in two worlds now -- virtual and real. Take the virtual world seriously. Just like the real world, if you take action without a plan, you may be wasting time, money, and additionally, losing touch with reality. Stay targeted: Always think about where your customer lives and what they really need from you -- both real world and virtually.