Sales and Social Media

I had five minutes of podium time to deliver my key messages to the 100 or so attendees at the Tech Council of Maryland’s executive event titled “Growing Your Business through Social Media.”

A number of speakers earlier in the session had basically glossed over the exciting applications of social media as a marketing and sales function. Rather, they chose to emphasize the threats lurking in the blogosphere and in communities like Facebook and MySpace. Every company must track the discussion and respond accordingly, they asserted.

While I agree that monitoring is a critical component of any corporate social media program, it’s merely the baseline. I said so emphatically and stressed three points that I believe make the business case to fund a social media initiative more compelling:

-Use lead generation, as well as the acceleration of awareness, executive visibility and thought leadership as benchmarks for success.

-It’s OK to sell in social networks, yet do so appropriately.

-Repurpose the marketing content most likely collecting dust on your shelves for social media programs like executive blogging and new media utilization.

The reaction from the audience was relatively muted. I chalk this up to the fact that most of the attendees are groping through social media and evaluating what is appropriate for their organization. I also wasn’t allocated the time to provide real world examples of how companies are leveraging social media to accelerate their business success.

Consider Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) social media program for security software firm Epok. We are positioning their application in Microsoft’s Sharepoint community through a mix of tactics including executive blogging, blogger relations and social network engagement.

Here’s the download on the campaign to date:

We launched an executive blog about six weeks ago and have had nearly a dozen posts. Our team has increased readership for each blog post using social bookmark sites, such as Reddit, Mixx and Digg. We’re also sharing content with Sharepoint groups in LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as leveraging Epok CTO’s Twitter and FriendFeed streams.

The results?

-We’ve secured an editorial piece for SharePoint Magazine through a LinkedIn connection.

-We’ve initiated a dialogue through Facebook with a blogger, who has since commented extensively on of our CTO’s post.

-An interview request came in through the comments feature on the blog from the editor of PBP IT newsletters.

-Most important, after posting a piece on improving battlefield communication, Epok was contacted by a government agency and it has turned into a sales lead.

I have a philosophical difference with the social media consultants who counsel their clients on the need to merely engage in conversations to build community. Yes on both accounts as there is value in connections.

Yet, never shy away from lead generation and sales as a goal of your social media campaign. This is what Strategic focuses on for its clients.