... And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want

Chapter 13. Social Media

Effective Strategies that Don't Consume All of Your Time

The Power of Social Media Is Everywhere

Barack Obama's presidential win was fueled by social media and viral marketing efforts that are credited for getting the youth to vote—a task that has been nearly impossible prior to this election. By the time he was inaugurated in January 2009, the president had 13 million people on his e-mail list, 3 million online donors, 5 million connections on more than 15 different social networking sites (including 3 million Facebook friends), 8.5 million monthly visitors to MyBarackObama.com, nearly 2,000 official YouTube videos (with more than 80 million views and 135,000 subscribers), and more than 3 million people signed up for his text messaging program. Astonishing—and obviously quite effective.

Business owners need to unlock the power of social media as a means of spreading the word about their product and services. But is social media right for your business? Is it a viable alternative to traditional marketing and advertising?

The answer depends on your business, your target audience, where your target audience spends their time, and on you. Traditional advertising and marketing is not dead, but an integrated approach that combines the traditional with social media is a healthy strategy. The extent to which you add social media to your marketing mix will vary in regard to your particular situation and company. Working through this chapter and its exercises will help ...