I just got an email from Salesforce.com for a seminar/webinar even and was delighted by the tagline that was burried beneath the graphics on the page. It was actually an image tag that doesn’t even show on the graphical version of the email. It says, “Salesforce.com – Success. Not Software.”

I’ve been writing taglines for companies lately, so I know how difficult it is to come up with good ones (especially good ones that big, “too many cooks” corporate marketing teams can agree on).

I’ll repeat it again. Salesforce.com – Success. Not Software. So pure, yet so complex. Heck, I don’t even know it it’s new. It just jumped out at me this morning.

If you don’t know what Salesforce does, here’s a quick run-down. They offer sales pipeline and CRM/contact management software in the “cloud.” What does that mean? Basically, you don’t have to buy boxed software and install it on client machines as a stand-alone program like Microsoft Office or ACT! You log in to your Web account and have a ton of software functionality available due to the latest Web software/services technologies like AJAX, Javascript, .NET, Silverlight and so forth.

So Salesforce does still sell software, but they’ve made it much easier. You log in to the site and do everything in the cloud, so back-up, losing contacts and maintenance/management tasks are effectively outsourced. You don’t have any software on client machines to mess with, which means no IT staff, no helpdesk calls, no hassles.

The tagline captures the benefits of CRM and sales/prospect/customer management — essentially “success.” That’s the bottom line for sales people. You need software to stay out of the way so you can continue to develop relationships with people and solve their problems. “Not software” captures the cloud computing angle and this desire to have things work without hassles.

So simple. So elegant. So all-encompasing. I love it. Good job to whoever Salesforce’s ad agency is.

A lot of people come to my site (via Google, Twitter and elsewhere) for information about marketing writing and freelance copywriting pricing. These include people in the market for writing services and freelance professionals that need guidance with respect to specific projects. I usually direct them to Steven Slaunwhite’s resources. He’s considered the pricing guru in the biz and does a lot of research to back up his info and reports.

I recently came across a great comment thread about freelance copywriting pricing, however. And it’s a useful eye-opener for anyone involved in this trade – buyers and sellers. Ignore the obnoxious headline and read the thread below that. There are a lot of gems in there (along with some duds and silliness). The range of pricing discussed is huge, but you can get a sense for what the more serious companies pay when they’re looking for quality writing.

Online communication is becoming central to most of our social and business lives. Face it – a laptop and smart phone/iPhone are the tools we use these days. It used to be the traditional telephone and the mail box, but now we have a lot of different ways to “explode” our messages, “go viral” and keep large groups of people updated.

The problem is… it’s really difficult to figure out what tools to use and how to stick to some habits and processes.

Here are five of my favorite tools/processes (I don’t have any affiliation with these co’s – I’m just an online tinkerer):

1)       Ping.fm – I use Ping.fm to update business messages to a variety of different social media/business platforms. I use the ping.fm toolbar to share stories that I find useful with my Twitter, Plaxo and LinkedIn groups. I find that some people are more active on certain networks, and I don’t want to have to manually update everyone separately. Ping.fm works great for this. I don’t update my primary Facebook page with this tool because those are mostly “social” friends in there. But I do have it set up to update my QualityWriter fan page.. which is really a nascent thing. There’s a good article about the best ways to set up Ping.fm here. Chris Brogan and ProBlogger Darren Rowse have good articles about how to structure your information sharing hub with a “home base” and “outposts.” They’re worth checking out for strategy purposes.

2)      Eye.fi – This is an SD memory card that goes into my digital camera. It stores photos and has a built-in Wi-Fi antenna (I’m amazed at how small the technology is – looks just like a regular SD card!). Whenever I arrive at my local network/home wireless network, Eye.fi auto-downloads all my photos and videos to folders on my computer and automatically uploads them to my services (Kodak Gallery, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook) based on my settings. This thing is dynamite. This has changed my photo managing habits. I now try to delete all bad photos and videos off of my camera before turning it on near my wireless network… before the “auto-up-suckage”. Another way to handle this is to use the Protect feature on your camera. Only photos that are protected are uploaded to your folders and networks.

3)      Google Voice – Google has a voice/phone service that integrates your landline and cell phone and texting into a unified “inbox”. I give out my Google Voice number to select clients and friends. When they call it, both my office phone and cell phone ring. It’s like a “Bat Phone.” From my laptop, I can SMS text my Gmail contacts (which are really all my contacts). This makes it easy to type out longer txts without doing the big-finger-blackberry thing. All messages go through my Google Voice inbox. They’re transcribed into text and emailed to me, too. I think I can have them sent as texts to my cell phone, too (not sure about this one). There are lots of other cool features – check it out, you’ll see.

4) ShareIn – If I want to update Facebook and/or Twitter friends about a story I’ve just read or a video I’ve just watched, I use ShareIn. This is a browser bookmarklet that gives you a “one click” way to do so. No more copy and paste. I wrote an article on how I came to embrace ShareIn here: How to Simplify your Social Media Life: The Pros and Cons of Posterous, Soup.io, ShareIn and FriendFeed. Ping.fm does this, too. But Ping.fm is better for touching all groups at once. ShareIn is good when you know exactly who you want to send something to – Twitter folks (who are more business for me) or Facebook (who are more social friends).

5)      Posterous – This blog/hosting services is a quick and easy to share photos, thoughts, articles, sounds and videos with friends and associates. See the “How to Simplify” link above for more of my thoughts on Posterous. Essentially, I use Posterous as a place to update close family and friends with my videos and photos of family life. I wouldn’t do this kind of in-depth posting on Facebook, because I don’t want to spam a loose group of social friends with too much cuteness, kid soccer games and such. Posterous, however, is a great place to archive stuff and allow family members to catch up. My family and friends don’t need to have an account or log in any way. It’s just my Posterous URL. Simple… and I can update it via email or the browser toolbar bookmarklet. Easy peasy.

Check out these awesome services. They’re all free – except for Eye.fi, which is a one time cha-ching (mine cost $69.99 at Amazon – with free shipping – shipping is a little steep from the main eye.fi site).

Please let me know your tips and tricks too by commenting below and sharing this post with your networks and groups. Thanks. – Phil

I’m going to start this post with a confession: I’ve been spending a lot of my non-work time with social media tools, platforms and networking sites. I caught a bug, so to speak. My latest obsession revolves around the ultimate tools for posting content, sharing ideas, sharing articles, and putting up personal photos and videos in the simplest, quickest way possible. I posted my findings about Posterous, FriendFeed, ShareIn and Soup.io in another article that’s linked here. This is ironic, by the way, because one of my recent posts is titled: Beware the Social Media Rathole and Re-Focus on 5 Key Business Disciplines

The point of this little riff, however, is to parse through some of the observations I’ve come across and to make some sense of it all in both a business and personal context. This exercise was originally just for me, but it occurred to me that you might benefit, as well.

One thing’s for sure – there’s *a lot* of chatter, anxiety and buzz out there with respect to everything social media/networking.

First, I want to set a baseline about communication and socialization and what it means to me. Then maybe we can move on to some of the curious things I’ve seen out in the “social networking” world.

I’ll start with an anecdote. When I was in high school, a friend and I started our own t-shirt company. I almost said “apparel company” there, but it wasn’t .. just one idea for a funny t-shirt (see image). The design was funny, interesting and relevant to the obsessions of our target audience – high school kids.

Could this have gone viral back in 1985?

It was about partying, status symbols (tongue and cheek to some extent – heck we were all growing up in one of the cheesiest, money-hungry cities in the U.S.), and college, the fortunate obsession of my peer group. So those elements were all in place.

And we sold thousands of t-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops. Enough to keep me on the beach and sipping (moderation – ;^)) Coors Light well into my college years.

But I don’t think it was the design, the humor or the general theme that made the project work. Those elements had to be in place, of course. Yet, it needed something else.

We used to call the really popular, socially active kids “soc’s” back in the day (pronounced soshes, with the ‘o’ sounding like its name). I guess I was one of those. But I had hooks into a lot of different groups – including the geeks (I had an Apple II+ before anyone else), the mods (I loved the Jam, The Clash and Generation X), and the jocks (I played tennis but hung out with the water polo guys).

The t-shirt company needed that “soc” component. The word needed to be spread amongst a group of people who liked each other, shared the same values and perhaps wanted to see our project succeed. My buddy and I were in a good position for that. We liked a lot of people, and they liked us. In today’s online world, you might call it “friending” or “following.”

That little business was a mix of social and business.

“Business Life” bleeds into “Social Life”

Over the years (I’m 41 now), I’ve seen a swinging tide of communication and interaction with my own business that straddles this line between social and business. And I always come back to the same core idea: Business is social. That’s no revelation, I know. But it’s important. In my writing business, I work with people I know and like. I’ve met some of them in person. Some through email originally. Some via social media channels. I talk with them from week to week on the phone. We have common goals and interests when it comes to marketing copy, persuasion and content production.

My clients and I got to know each other in person, online and over the telephone wires (the last two are the same I guess). We sussed each other out, made sure our shoes were clean, made sure we didn’t smell bad and decided to do business with each other. That’s the way it works. You can’t take the social component out of it. And personal life bleeds into business life. They can see my Facebook stuff, if they like. But I run a clean show for the most part. I have a few wild friends that post off-color remarks on my pages from time to time, and I’ll put up a questionable humor link from time to time. But everything’s PG to PG-13 for the most part.

So, when I talk to people about Facebook, Twitter and the like, I often come back to the idea that business is social and the Internet is just another communication device. It’s no different than the pony express, the written letter, the telegraph, the steam boat or the telephone.

“But you lie, Phil!”

Yes I do. Somewhat. There’s a big difference between these new tools and the old, one-to-one communication channels like telephone, letter, email and personal conversation.

With those older “technologies,” the viral or word of mouth element is limited. If you call three friends and tell them some gossip or some useful business information, then your potential “megaphone” factor might extend the message out to another 40-80 people maximum, depending upon on the value or interest-level of the message and your own circle of friends. The people on the other end of the line have to be very motivated to call another person and extend your message, so 40 to 80 might be stretching it. The same thing applies to a letter, a newspaper clipping you mail, or an email (though emails are slightly more viral due to forwarding).

With something like a Facebook or Twitter post, however, your information can be immediately launched to massive networks within seconds. All it takes is one friend with several hundred Facebook contacts  or a Twitter follower who has several thousands of followers in their network.

If I had a Twitter account back in 1984, I would have designed college sweatshirts for every community in Southern California and beyond, and then mined Twitter in reverse to spread the word. What does that mean? – “Mine Twitter in reverse..?” This subject is worth another post, but essentially, it’s about using tools like search.twitter.com to connect with people that have similar interests (and to target demographics). You can do similar mining on Facebook now, too. I might have even used AdWords to get the word out.

Who will go to bat for you?

Getting the word out is crucial, of course. And, to go viral you need strong connections to living breathing people. Here are the three keys to getting the word out:

1. The strength of your connections
2. The level of your engagement
3. The quality of your message

These also apply to your personal communications. The point here, however, is that it doesn’t matter what communication channel you use. Use your phone, a postage stamp, an email, Twitter or Facebook. But pay attention to those three keys. These are what will determine who will go to bat for you.

#1 has to do with who cares about you and your products/solutions. The root of this “caring” lies, interestingly, in the quality of care you direct toward your customers and contacts. If you care about your consumers/users/audience, then you’re putting yourself in their shoes every day, trying to figure out ways you can benefit them.

#2 has to do with the quality and quantity of your interactions. How many “touches” do you have with customers and friends/followers? Are you bugging people or offering them real value and insights? Are you answering their questions and trying to help them when your solution is not working out as planned?

#3 is an extension of #2. If you’re selling *anything* these days, you’re in the content production business. Ask any exec in upper management at Starbucks, and they’ll tell you that they’re in the content production and experience business. They nailed down coffee production, franchise and supply chain issues long ago. Their key differentiator is now “experience enhancement.” That means testing store designs and content (e.g. music selections and messaging on displays), engaging with “hub” or power/influencer users online and in the physical world at events, and constantly pumping out relevant information (whether it’s regarding philanthropy projects, music, books or coffee facts). Content has always been king, and you need to produce it well in order to make any kind of impact in this world. That goes for software companies, shipping companies, French fry peddlers, freelancers, web designers, lawyers, dog walkers… everybody.

Now, that said… ask yourself, “Would I rather make 500 phone calls? Or is it worthwhile building a network of Facebook and Twitter followers?” If I were selling sweatshirts, I’d opt for the latter. Multimedia advantages aside (e.g. demos, jpegs, and video showcasing the products), social media tools scale much more easily than phone calls, post cards or index cards on the bulletin board at the local coffee shop.

A strange world in transition

Ideally, social media allows you to make more connections with people and perhaps even make more meaningful, lasting connections – whether it’s for business or social purposes. But that’s not always the case is it? People resist participation, some only broadcast their views and others just don’t communicate all that well.

What follows are stories about three friends/associates of mine and how they perceive social media. Keep in mind, these people are like most of us (with the exception of the techie guy who’s deeply immersed in this social media scene). They want to find tools that are easy for them to use and don’t complicate their lives further. I can identify with that, and I’m not going take issue with them on a technology level. Many of the tools and “solutions” out there that are supposed to make communication easier are difficult to manage, and they don’t do what people want them to do (see my other post on Posterous, FriendFeed, Soup.io and ShareIn).

So, I’ll start with the simplest of stories. This guy is a friend of mine from high school. He’s what I’d call a Facebook power user. He’s constantly updating his status, posting photos and linking to articles of interest. One time I posted a story about Twitter on my Facebook feed, and he fired back, “I hate Twitter.”

To me that was strange. Here’s a guy that spends a good portion of his day using a communication tool (Facebook) to update his pool of friends and communicate with them. There’s another tool out there that does something similar and he hates it. There could be something else going on, too. Suw Charman-Anderson has an interesting post about social media polarization, bigotry and “outgroup” phenomena.

People become religious about their tools and forget the underlying reality – it’s about communication. You see this with people who are passionate about Macs over PCs. Those who like blackberries over iPhones, etc. I’d agree that some tools are easier to use for particular types of people. For example, I like my Blackberry, because I can’t stand texting on touch screens. I think the same thing applies to my friend and his Facebook account. He’s committed to it. He’s all dialed in. And he’s used to the way it works. I can appreciate that.

I’m pretty sure that similar feelings accompanied the evolution of other technologies, as well. I have an aunt, for example, that can’t stand email. She prefers the pen, the ink and a stamp. People despise Amazon Kindles because they like the feel of paper pages. There was a time when a lot of people despised cell phones (many still do for a variety of reasons).

You don’t find many people who despise communication, however. And that’s really what we’re talking about. There are a lot of preferences out there. Some people prefer texting. Some Skype. Some IM. There’s an evolution of how a particular communication thread goes, too. For example, I like to text to set up plans and get simple questions answered, but I’ll go to voice when the conversation looks like it’s going to include more details or a personal tone/touch.

And, if I want to share something with a large group of people without “bugging” them, I choose social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. The people on the other end of the communication can deal with the information (or not) whenever they choose. The scalability factor is nice, and it’s easier for me to update a lot of people at once. This is different than direct communications like @-replies and one-to-one threads in Facebook, of course.

The second friend is a business woman who’s involved in media production and advertising for small businesses. She runs an “old school” magazine/dining guide that recommends restaurants in the local area. I call it old school because the publication is beholden to its advertisers – the old model for print publications. You sell ads and offer the buyers a carrot. If they buy ads, they get editorial. It makes for a very un-transparent, deceptive “guide.” We met up to discuss our respective marketing capabilities, and I mentioned social media, Twitter mining, Word Press blogs, etc. She said she was able to do any of those types of things for clients (with partner companies), but she doesn’t follow the technology trends and the new advertising models. She didn’t know what AdWords are, for example.

During our conversation, she pushed back really hard against any mention of social media or the value of social networking with respect to marketing. Personally, she felt that any new tools or practices (like using Twitter or Facebook) would just complicate her life. She found chasing email frustrating enough as is.

Her demographic for the dining guide is young adults, probably 18 to 35 – pre-children professionals that have time to go out and eat well, club, etc. I mentioned that this group increasingly avoids email in favor of social media communication. I repeated the popular line of Gen Y – “If I want to get a hold of an old person, I’ll use email.” Otherwise, they’re filtering their communications via social media tools and sites. This helps them avoid burdensome activities like chasing email all day. My friend wasn’t buying it. She was more interested in talking about four-color layouts for direct response post cards. I don’t have anything against those, but I thought we’d get beyond that.

And, I must say (Ed Grimley) that I concur with her about the frustration with yet another social media tool to use or site to join. For most of us, it’s exhausting keeping up with these things. People need easy-to-use, intuitive tools that offer shortcuts. Many don’t know about bit.ly and tiny.url and the like. They don’t have the Firefox plug-ins like UrlBarExt. They don’t want to cut and paste links. I think this is why the buzz around tools like Tumblr, Soup.io, FriendFeed, Posterous and ShareIn is so busy. These tools have their flaws, but they’re getting closer to an ideal social media sharing solution (for businesses and personal users). So, I’m hopelessly committed to this evolution. I can’t wait to check out Google Wave, for example. I’ve tried Mozilla’s Flock, and I use both TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop.

But I was taken aback by this friend’s position. While I could understand it completely, I just think it’s a bit naïve for a marketing professional to resist this. It’s like resisting using the phone for cold calling, using the yellow pages for prospecting or using the mail for advertising in days gone by.

My third friend is a big anomaly… a paradox of sorts. He’s someone I’ve partnered with in the past (on AdWords campaigns for joint clients). He’s a power user of Twitter, Facebook and all things social media. In fact, he frequently offers seminars and talks on the subject. His niche is in helping small businesses with Web marketing and positioning. He’s a big proponent of WordPress (I am, too).

I recently emailed him with questions about some social media issues I was wondering about. No reply. So I pinged him with an @ on Twitter and a DM. No reply. I emailed some more as additional ideas came up. Nothing. Then I commented on some of his Facebook entries to see if I could get a response there. Nope, nada.

It was very strange. Here’s someone who’s hook-line-and-sinker in the tank for social media, and he’s ignoring direct communications. Could be that I offended him. Maybe I owe him money (don’t think so). It’s possible that he’s a huge power user of these tools and that my pings have fallen through the cracks. I could imagine a scenario where my emails go to his spam folder, his Twitter @ feed is way too jammed and he ignores DMs (like a lot of Twitter folks do, due to spam).

It’s just weird that all this use of social media actually prevents communication. In this case, it’s probably time to just pick up the phone.

Circling Back – Be a Communicator, a Content Producer and a Content Filter

Ok, so what are the big take-aways here?  Communication is the critical component to all of this. Despite my failures with friend #3, and the resistance of many to new communication channels – socializing and sharing ideas with people drives business and friendships. There’s nothing new there, but it’s an age old truth.

Also, people are at wildly different stages of adoption when it comes to communication tools. Heck, even folks in the marketing space still resist new modes of communication. People find tools that they like, and they stick with them because they’re comfortable and they’ve invested in some “build-out” of profiles, skill sets, etc.

So what should you do when it comes to using social media tools for better business and relationships? My recommendations are simple (even though I’m often guilty of not following them very competently).

1. Communicate clearly and often – Write better, produce better videos and blogs, and make those “touches” no matter what communication channel you’re using.
2. Filter content for your friends and followers – Use your authority, expertise and experience to help others make better decisions in their lives. Simple. The amount of information available is staggering today. People need trusted filters to make better decisions about the media they consume, the products they buy, and the people they associate with. With the right networks and associations, we’re moving toward more efficient, productive relationships. The tools are getting better, and people are catching on.
3. Focus on value – What do your clients, friends and associates want from you? When you figure it out, deliver that in big, heaping helpings. Don’t spam or bother. Instead, converse, comment and connect. Broadcast messages are becoming less attractive as these new media channels evolve. Interaction and caring are the keys.

Long post. Thanks for hanging with me! .. Fingers cramping… Must get coffee.

Are you getting good results from your direct response, Web content and social media campaigns? Are you writing case studies and white papers that get passed around the web?

If you are, stop here and read no further. Those campaigns are paying for themselves, and you don’t need my services.

If you’re like most businesses, however, you’re somewhere in the middle. Maybe your production schedules don’t exactly hum along. Maybe your agency charges you outlandish fees for slick account managers paired with just-out-of-college copywriters. Maybe you’re tired of long presentations and creative dog-and-pony shows that elongate your delivery timelines. Maybe your content and promos perform below expectations.

Whatever your situation, you probably need to lower costs while improving results.

Some quick tips:

1) Break out creative functions in order to afford better quality. We’re living in a “long tail” freelancer world. There are dozens of highly qualified artists, writers and Web developers out there (including me) that have extensive experience in your particular business. My niche happens to be technology – enterprise software/hardware and telecom/networking, to be precise. If you escape the monthly ad agency overhead, you can afford to work on tightly focused projects without breaking the bank.

2) Create promos and content that are designed for re-usability. For example, you can use that white paper you just published to crank out a bunch of other content and campaigns, including direct response pieces, AdWords campaigns, landing pages, videos, email blasts and more.

3) Pay as you go and turn your ideas into reality within days. If you could get an estimate for a specific project within an hour.. and then kick off the project within the next hour, would that make you smile? With a pay-go, turn-on-the-spigot-as-you-need-it freelancer, you can be really nimble and proactive. Agility is the key these days. You can respond to market events, competitive threats or new information really quickly. You save money by using a freelancer and capitalize on opportunities quickly.

So, who should write your next marketing promo?

I suggest me.

I’ve been producing results for some of the biggest names in the business (CA, HP, IBM, Microsoft, D-Link, Software AG, Hyperion-Oracle and many others large and small) for the past 15 years. I’m a nerd with a pen and a whole lot of marketing experience.

Call me now (949) 891-2569 (Google Voice # – very geeky) to discuss your plans. Or email dunn@qualitywriter.com.

I want to help you move the needle.

~Phil

Myself and a few of other leaders in the marketing/writing/social media business were featured in a new advice column on ClickDocuments:

ClickInsights: Tips on how to use social media marketing for promoting white papers

I like my input, of course. But there’s some other good info there, as well. Please check it out and add your $0.02.

For years I struggled with music players. I bought cheap MP3 players, and I bought cell phones that I thought would be good all-in-one solutions for music, texting, calling and so forth.

Recently, I broke down and bought an iPod Touch… and it makes me a little sad. I’ve wasted a lot of time struggling with cruddy software interfaces, inane syncing schemes and just plain dumbness of design.

Yes, Apple products are good. No surprise here, and that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about specialization and why it makes sense for your business. You see, I bought the iTouch because I wanted a product from a company that specializes in the music experience. It comes with a lot of other cool stuff – like wi-fi, which I love. Yet, it’s the music experience that I’m after. Yes, I know I could have bought an iPhone and added mobile phone capability, but I don’t like touch screens for texting. So I’m keeping my cell phone separate from my music/game toy for the time being. When Apple comes out with a nice chicklet keyboard iPhone, I’ll be the first one in line.

Anyway, this discussion brings me to the following maxim: Don’t buy generalist products, and don’t be a generalist producer.

I wanted the right music player, and I finally bought it. If you want good chocolate, get it from the company that breathes and bleeds chocolate – the one that obsesses over cocoa, not coffee or nuts or some other diversion. If you want a good wine recommendation, get it from a proven expert.

In business, this is imperative. If you want a good graphic artist, buy services from someone with experience in your particular industry. If you want a good writer, get one who knows your turf.

If you go to the agency that says yes to everyone, regardless of their experience with the project or industry, you’re going to get a generalist solution and perhaps something worse. You’ll get a provider that’s ok at a bunch of stuff but not really good at any particular thing. It reminds me of the Nike Trainers when they first came out. It was the shoe that was ok for a handful of sports but not really exceptional for any specific sport. Yuck – in short.

If you keep this in mind when you’re buying and selling, you’ll be in good shape. It’s particularly relevant when you’re building your career. Don’t try to be the best at everything. You’ll end up with fewer customers, lower pricing and poorer performance.

Last December, social media icon and wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk experimented with several advertising channels to boost www.winelibrary.com’s wine sales. The offer included free shipping and was promoted via three different “media outlets”:

1)     Direct mail (snail mail)

2)     Billboard (traditional outdoor)

3)     Twitter messages about the promotion

Which one was the most successful? Any guesses?

Drum roll….

The direct mail campaign, which cost $15,000, brought in 200 new customers. The billboard ad, which cost $7500 netted 300 new customers. And, the Twitter campaign, whose costs were undisclosed (I can only assume that this would relate to Vaynerchuk’s hourly rate or some deconstruction of his speaking fees), brought in 1,800 new customers.

This is pretty impressive. Most companies could easily justify a Twitter approach, especially if their employees managing the campaign work for a reasonable hourly rate. Even at $200 an hour, an employee logging a couple hours a day scheduling targeted tweets on something like  www.tweetlater.com would pay off. When it comes to reaching people, the numbers are tilted in favor of Twitter. There are some caveats, however (see below).

Consider this: Twitter itself is a target audience of sorts. Gary Vay*ner*chuk’s audience is very tech savvy and connected via social media platforms, tools and social networking sites. If you’re not familiar with GaryVee, I’d suggest doing some googling to figure out who he is. He’s a major force in the “new marketing” biz.. as well as the wine industry.

So, someone like Vaynerchuk can get a lot more mileage out of something like Twitter. His audience is expecting to see him there.. eagerly anticipating his every tweet. A lot of companies don’t have this luxury.

That said, a campaign to build an audience on Twitter couldn’t be a bad thing, right?

Once your audience has some gravity and size, you can pull off promotional campaigns like Vaynerchuk’s. What’s the ideal size and quality of this audience? I don’t know. I’d like to see some research on this. It’s the one thing that’s often overlooked in social media discussion circles.

What are your thoughts? 10,000 followers? Two-thirds of which are involved with the product, brand, solution or issue? (please comment below and share this link via the ShareThis icon)

Technology executives, marketing managers, creative directors, sales people, CMOs, VPs and CEOs all have one thing in common. You have to sell despite the current economic climate.

You can’t just turn off the bull-horn and expect to save money by being quiet, though. That’s a recipe for disaster.

I’ve detailed this elsewhere, demonstrating how the smart companies actually gain market share during recessions or depressions. So I won’t belabor that point any further.

So, how do you connect with customers when they’re so resistant to new spending initiatives? How do you generate better leads when customer budgets are shrinking?

Here a quick, high-level run-down of the pertinent answers.

First, you should show them:

• How your solution saves them money.
• How your solution helps them make money.
• New ways to make money.
• How your solution helps simplify their business.
• How your solution helps them reduce head count (painful as that subject may be).
• How to eliminate wasteful activity.
• Real life customers you’ve helped do all of the above (as case studies)

I can help you do this by writing your white papers and customer case studies, which are crucial lead generation pieces.

The next question you should be asking is: How do I find people that are interested in these topics (with respect to my solutions/products/services)?

I have several different approaches to this last question. Some are social media related, some involve emailing people, some use good old-fashioned direct mail, some utilize Google Adwords and Facebook ads.

If you’d like to explore these topics in more detail and create a marketing campaign that gets immediate results, please give me a call at 949-515-3510 or email me at dunn@qualitywriter.com.

P.S. I have a really efficient system for carrying out these types of direct marketing plans. Please give me a call or email and I’ll tell you how I automate direct response campaigns with my assistant.

P.P.S If you end up hiring me to write some content for you, there’s zero risk. When the copy drives sales it’s essentially free. (All it takes is one extra sale to absorb your writing costs. You can’t lose.) Plus, I personally guarantee my work. You get a full refund by just calling up and telling me where I missed the mark and what I could have done better. I need you to tell me at least five things we could have done better. There’s one little catch: If you decide to keep the copy and continue using my services, I’d like you to give us a referral to one of your colleagues who you think can benefit from our services. Easy.

.. Unless You Find a Way to Make Them Profit Your Customers

One of the hottest, latest conversation starters in marketing and sales meetings across the planet is “social media.” Ask people to join you in a meeting about social media, and you’ll find a lot of takers. This goes for internal folks and customers/prospects alike. The hype has hit that critical mass level.

But you’ll soon find out that most people don’t know what the heck they’re talking about or what the heck they want to accomplish with social media.

Everyone loves it, of course.

“I’m on Facebook!”

“Follow me on Twitter.”

“Join me on LinkedIn.”

Yet a lot of marketing and sales folks who are pumped about what this all means can’t give you a detailed outline of their social media and social networking strategies.

And by strategies I mean the following: How can I leverage social media platforms to make a difference in the lives of my customers or prospects?

Ask yourself some questions to get to the root of this strategy dilemma:

• How do people use these tools/applications?
• Why are they using them?
• What exactly can I do with things like Twitter and Facebook to start conversations with customers?
• What kinds of conversations do I want to have?
• What’s my goal when I have a conversation with someone via social media?
• Should I have a goal?
• Should I be educating?
• Should I give out free information?
• How do I structure free information to draw people closer to my organization and solutions?
• Can I schedule meetings, webinars or phone calls via social media?
• Can I close business on these platforms?
• What’s possible?

The ultimate goal of an exercise like this should drive to one general area, and that is: How does the person on the other end of these transactions and communications stand to profit from the exchange?

Are you solving a problem for them? Can you help them make more money for themselves and their company? Can you help them get a job or a promotion? Can you help them keep a job that they fear they might lose? Can you reduce their debt burden? Can you help them build out their market share? Can you help them reach more people and sell more via social media?

These are the kinds of questions you need to answer before you start jumping up and down about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Otherwise you’re just propagating counter-productivity. Everybody knows that Facebook and Twitter are major time suckers unless you’re positioned to help someone every day. You have to actively help people get what they want out of life – whether that’s more sales, more compelling advertising, better health, a happier family life, a loving relationship, a place to live, a job.. whatever it is that’s motivating them.

Make the connection between what you offer and what people need, and you’ll be using social media and social networking tools effectively.

If you’d like to explore these topics in more detail and create a marketing campaign that gets immediate results, please give me a call at 949-515-3510 or email me at dunn@qualitywriter.com.

P.S. I can help you start figuring out what your prospects are looking for in just a few simple steps (using Facebook and Google AdWords, btw).