The Creation Shop

By Brent Spore
This week, I was in a breakfast meeting and was asked the inevitable question:

How does social media affect a business’ “bottom line”?

So I thought it would be important to mention my answer here in the TCS Newsletter, since we are quickly becoming the social media solution for our clients.

If I were writing this just a couple years ago, the question would include the word “networking” instead of social media.

Now before I get too far into this, I want to publish my disclaimer. I realize that I write this at the expense of being misunderstood. Please don’t misinterpret what I am about to say because my view of networking groups is a tad bit tainted. This is mostly due to the fact that most networking groups I have attended in the past was nothing more than a group of sales-minded individuals looking for everyone else to give them business. Now I have certainly interacted with a few networking groups that are quite successful. However, in most of my networking experiences, the relationship-building part of it was not strongly apparent. I suppose I couldn’t expect too much success when all the parties involved are there for one reason, themselves! So I guess you could say the networking thing just didn’t work for me.

My immersion into the world of social media for me has been a completely different and refreshing experience in which I have seen results. Social media by nature is a collaborative environment of people and services that are there for educational and cooperative reasons. First and foremost, this media is virtual and technology-based, and allows for a business’ exposure to be potentially enormous in comparison to the traditional networking environment. In an average networking group, you might connect with 10-20 other individuals that may or may not be interested in what you have to say or offer. Social media offers a much larger, and more captive audience. Attracting interested readers and listeners who have the ability to participate in what you are communicating is a unique aspect of social media.

Say you have a blog and you have published an article related to your industry. That blog entry gets cycled through the various social media connections and finds it’s way to readers looking for tags or keywords specific to your business. Those readers would then click through to your site to read the rest of the article. This is your social media audience. Not a passive “customer” just browsing, but someone actually looking for information that you provide. In my opinion, this is a much better scenario in the world of business.

With social media, now you have an opportunity to build relationships instead of just making a quick sale. Marketing as we think of it today should not be perceived as sales-focused but rather it should be relationship management. If your customers can socially interact with you and your company and if they feel welcome to do so, you don’t have to be a VP of marketing to know that is worth it’s weight in gold. At TCS, we believe in helping our clients build long-lasting relationships with their clients rather than finding “quick kill” that the traditional sales mentality cultivates.

So my challenge to you is this. Change your mindset from focusing on sales to cultivating long-lasting relationships through social media venues. It will not only increase your bottom line, but will guarantee the longevity of your company. Ultimately, that is something you can take to the bank!