When The Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Social

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief of Social Media Strategy at xynoMedia

This evening I'm speaking at an event and the theme is: "Marketing Your Business in Tough Times Through Social Networks"  (the event is free and there's still time to register if you want to attend!).

Which started me thinking...

You may or may not know my philosophy on the whole 'economic downturn' debacle. But, you've probably heard me say more than once: Lena's economy is just fine. So, I'm with Dave Ramsey on this one:

My name is Lena West and I'm NOT participating in this recession.

Keeping it real, I do realize that there have been some shifts in the economy - and there are some people who, for whatever reason, are unable (yet!) to reframe the latest chain of financial events into fuel they can use to move forward. I get that. (I'm not totally in la-la land.)

And, as a social media strategist, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't notice the uptick in business. Companies that don't have the bandwidth in their budgets for advertising and other traditional marketing are turning to social media in droves. (Not so "experimental" now, eh?) I should say the SMART companies are the one's who are getting with the program.

It's not easy out there. And, depending on your industry, it's damn hard. But, you don't have to take this lying down. Here's what you can do:

1. Start listening. There's a cacophony of conversations happening online. People (and by that I mean investors, analysts, customers/clients, vendors, etc.) are probably talking about your brand or your niche/industry. Faissez attention vous! (Pay attention!) If you can't afford a snazzy conversation monitoring tool, use some free tools. Google Alerts. TweetBeep. TweetGrid. Twilert.
2. Participate. It costs zilch to be a part of the conversation, if you do it right (do it wrong, and it'll cost ya). Once you listen and find out where the good convos are happening, chiming in is easy - just make sure you have something to say. In tight economic times people are even more judgmental so if you're blowing hot air, save it for David.
3. Use O.P.S. (Other People's Social) We're all familiar with the concept of O.P.M. - other people's money (any maybe even O.P.P. - but that's another blog post); O.P.S.  is the same thing - except we're not talking money, we're talking street cred. Provided your motives are pure, there's no shame in latching on to whomever is popular and joining them in their crusade to improve your industry, enhance safety standards, decrease carbon emissions - or be a better company period. You don't have to start your own thing. Being a part of what's already happenining can sometimes be just as important and fruitful as doing your own thing.
4. Pay attention and speak up! It's not enough to be part of the conversation, you have to pay attention to potential openings to provide your company's expertise/products/services. While it's totally gauche to hawk your wares every chance you get, it's fine to offer your services when there is a fit. This is still business. Saying something like, "Hey Jane, I don't know if your company is open to this, but I'm a [fill in your expertise here] and we help clients with this kind of stuff all the time - if you want to talk, I might be able to offer some suggestions," is appropriate and welcomed.

And, what does all this "being social" get you? Visibility, attention, eyeballs, web traffic, speaking engagements, etc. And, of course, new clients.

Bottomline: You don't have to take this economy lying down. Instead of thinking about what you can't do dwell in the realm of possibility and focus on what you CAN do. And, you CAN be social.

Comments

[N.Jonathan Christopher]

Social Media Marketing is now the new dimension in advertising. Web 2.0 has made this possible and companies on a tight budget can make use of this.
-Jonathan
http://www.p2w2.com/jonathan

[Lena L. West]

Yes, the benefits are vast.

Thanks for reading and commenting, Laurent!

[laurent]

Basically it's about being relevant and adding value.
Interestingly enough, I don't think social media marketing is that different from traditional offline marketing (you would segment, target as part of your strategy and then 'offer' to be listened to as part of your tactics) but it's definitely different from online marketing as we've known it today where there's lots of trickery on the part of companies (just saw an e-tailer who changes the price on their site saw to adjust to the discount they offer my in their daily emails).
Where it's different is in access and scale. It's now fairly easy to access your market and its constituents (influencers..) and you can scale because technology provides a huge productivity boost in the overall engagement process.