I agree that LinkedIn is evolving into a one stop portal, most recently allowing: FOLLOWING which is similar to Twitter.

Social Marketing and networking truly allows people to be in control of their brand and message.

Thanks for the comment.

We believe social marketing is essential to the overall marketing package. Facebook and Twitter are excellent tools to build and engage an audience. But like any marketing tool, one has to nurture and communicate frequently with its customer base.

Large companies like Coca Cola, Paramount Studios and Dell utilize Facebook by providing engaging content along with contests and promotions.

One sporting goods retailer has included a merchant shopping cart and admits the sales are only a small percentage, but for them, it’s another forum to be seen.

Recently, a client has a book to be released in September did not want to begin building her Facebook and Twitter sites until after the book was released.

I said, waiting until the book is distributed before starting to build your social media platform is like “preparing Thanksgiving dinner and inviting guests when the food is done cooking.”

It’s amazing how many B2B’s don’t realize that that B2B = People2People.

Now matter how you slice it all business come from closing deals with other people.

Social media is a smart want to talk one-on-one, person to person because every message is read, heard or viewed, one person at a time.

Each social media contact builds your story and credibility.

With that said, It’s critical to any marketing plan to include social media for all the above reasons.

In fact, it’s wise to budget your time, money and effort for social media marketing because the ROI of you growing your People2People contacts is huge.

To your marketing success in 2010
Sandy Barris
CEO
Fast Marketing Plan.com.
http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

I would recommend that you also search this blog using the category drop-down menu. Select “Web 2.0 Marketing” and then “Social Media” and you will find many articles that should be helpful to you.

At the risk of telling you something you already know, social networking is just part of social media. And social media is just part of Web 2.0 Marketing. Some people get so wrapped up in social networking or social media that they miss many great marketing tools that are under the Web 2.0 Marketing umbrella.

Good luck, Tim! Thanks for following the blog and sharing your thoughts.

The thing that excites me most about social media is it levels the playing field from a cost standpoint. Now it’s all about effort and want to.

Cheers

I am very familiar with Chris Brogan. He was in Minneapolis last Wednesday and put on a seminar, “Reputations,” at Best Buy HQ. I could not attend due to a conflict but a friend of mine attended and he and I are working on a two part article based upon it. I will probably publish that within a couple weeks. I expect it to be quite popular.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my article and commenting on it.

An excellent book that I would like to suggest is “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan. He is not a marketer by trade, but has become one of the top ranking bloggers on the web and gives a no-nonsense look into why it is important to take a leap of faith into this new media. In a nutshell, the 1st step is to listen to your target audience with “Big Ears”, 2nd Connect with you tribes and 3rd publish. People buy from people they trust…once you establish the trust, the sales will follow.

The video is one of the best “wake up calls” to organizations and individuals alike about the growing importance of Web 2.0 and social media.

I think it is imperative that folks who are in the social media marketing arena help educate those who are unsure or unwilling to explore social media applications on their own. Using social media marketing does not mean discarding tried and true traditional methods of marketing. Social media is another tool in the marketing and PR toolbox that should be used to augment an existing marketing strategy.

My clients tend to be either ignorant of the benefits of social media (“why do I need to use it — people who want to find me can just Google me”) and/or apprehensive of new technologies (“I just don’t get that Twitter thing — I have enough Friends I don’t need Facebook). I use education as the key to the successful implementation and integration of social media into a marketing plan.

To answer your question: social media platforms are an important addition to any organization’s marketing plan, not a replacement for and definitely not an entire marketing plan on their own.