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Social Media: Show me the money!

by Mike Saunders on 16/03/10 at 8:00 am
1 comment

Jerry Maguire screams “SHOW ME THE MONEY” into the telephone to convince his client that he is committed to making him more money. Its a great scene by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise and is worth watching. If you need a little reminder then check this out.

Cuba Gooding Jr. basically chose to keep Tom Cruise as his agent because he commits to showing him the money. Now I am not the type of person who says that money is the be all and end all of life, but I do want to suggest to you that if you are getting into social media – get ready to show me the money.

Too often we get carried away inside the social media realms and spend hours upon hours talking to people or listening to people that we tend to lose sight of our profit margins. I would call this a symptom of social media overload where we eventually abandon social media  claiming that its a waste of time.

Kasey Skala makes a great point in his article “It’s not about listening, It’s about the green” where he makes it clear that the only business benefit to social media (or any marketing) has to be related to how much additional revenue it generates for the company.  In business you cannot afford to spend money on any marketing that does not increase your bottom line. Entrepenuers often get into social media because of the low entry costs and tend to spend much of their time marketing themselves online. Social media has a number of great uses within an organisation but we need to be sure to approach it carefully and with very clear objectives. These objectives can vary but must either save you money or make you money. Time is money and you need to make sure that you are generating business online as opposed to just spending time there.

Two ways that social media could achieve this:

1. Growing a facebook page database allows you to share your marketing message with like-minded people. These people could be ready to buy your product or service and just need a nudge in the right direction. A link to a blog post explaining the value of what you are offering in a creative and enticing way may just generate new business. However loading clever Youtube clips might keep your fan base entertained but they won’t be calling you to buy your product any time soon.
2. Taking the time to listen to what people say about you online is a great use of time. However its what you do with that information thats important. Customers may complain because of the long queues in banks when trying to change their daily banking limit. This gives you a great chance to respond to them in the public arena to introduce them to your new online offering where you can change your daily limit online. You have now satisfied the customer and everyone listening to his/her complaint. This intern should impact your bottom line.

There are a host of important activities that can take place in social media that will help you to grow your business, develop new products and listen to your customers. The warning is simple – think about engaging people online with your product or service (dont simply talk about it).

Engagement with the customer = Show me the money

Mike Saunders is an internet marketing consultant and social media coach. If you like what he has to say visit his blog on internet marketing strategy or follow him on twitter and Facebook - View more articles by Mike Saunders.

Tags: facebook, facebook marketing, finance, Marketing, mike saunders, Online social networking, profit, social media, social media environment, Social Media optimization, Web marketing

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