I’m a softie at heart… the proverbial nice guy who tends to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. My millionaire coach encouraged me to embody, as she did, the hard-nosed business person who never takes business personally. “It’s not personal… it’s just business” she would say upon summarily dismissing a business partner.

I learned many wonderful things from her about investing and managing my business. But this “It’s not personal” stuff never quite sat right with me… and now I know why.

The Truth: It IS Personal Today

As any business working in the Internet world today, you need to understand that everything you do or say IS personal. One word… one innocuous statement… can make or break an entire marketing campaign.

You may find, as Southwest Airlines or Amazon did recently that a rumor can spread quickly. A simple “business decision” can be quickly misunderstood and spread far and wide in entirely the wrong way.

Amazon, for example, had to quickly squelch rumors that they were removing gay and lesbian titles from their shelves.  If not for the prompt response of their social media team, things may have gotten a lot worse. They quickly realized that a simple business decision (they weren’t removing, but rather re-categorizing)  had turned into a PR nightmare.

What if they had said, “It’s not personal” to their worldwide community? Oh, my… you can only imagine the horrors financially. The truth is that it IS personal.

Social Media Has Changed Everything

The smallest issue can blossom into a hyper-galactic mess in a matter of minutes. I don’t care how amazing your products or services are (and neither do your customers).  If people feel the least bit slighted, put down, condescended, or minimized by something you said or even implied, word will spread faster than melted butter on your best slacks.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have tight business contracts, use smart business processes, or do any of the other things that are good business sense. But when you’re dealing with customers, colleagues, joint venture partners, or even competitors, it’s not “just business” anymore. It’s personal.

People DO take things personally, especially online. More than ever people expect to be treated with respect and dignity, even if you think they’re not worthy of the slime they slid in on. Your vocabulary word for the day is this…

VALUE

Whether you’re Tweeting, blogging, commenting on another person’s blog, or even promoting your latest brilliant invention, what you do must be infused with value… and by ‘value‘, I mean value in the mind of your prospects , customers, and anyone else paying attention to you.

And face it… telling someone to get over themselves because “it’s just business” doesn’t exactly add much value to their experience of you, does it?

Think about it. Then let me know your thoughts.

Many companies separate their Social Media, Social Networking and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.

Bad idea…

The Internet is becoming more social, more integrated, and more “value-driven.” The impact of this shift on your bottom line is huge.

There are roughly 8 million Twitter posts every day. LinkedIn boasts that they have over 40 million active members. And, Facebook is now the 4th most visited web site in the world, with roughly 20% of all internet users visiting Facebook on a daily basis.

As the same time, the number of search queries made daily is also increasing, with Google increasing its share of the search engine market to almost 65%.

The Reason for SEO and Social Media Madness

Think about what you do online. You’re either connecting with people or you are gathering information.

Five years ago, the ratio of time spent online leaned heavily towards the gathering of information. Today, it’s getting closer to a 50/50 split, with people spending as much time connecting as they are searching for answers to their questions.

In fact, it’s even more mixed up than that… Often, in our search for information, we run across “interesting” diversions — cool videos, a fun audio, or a scintillating conversation.

Your customers are online. They:

• Watch videos in increasing numbers…
• Download recordings from iTunes…
• Post (and read) mindless banter on Facebook and Twitter…
• Read informative articles…
• Comment on blogs…
• Bookmark fascinating web pages…
• Upload and view photos…
• And much, MUCH more…

How Will They Find You Online?

For the sake of simplicity, let’s just call this whole ball of wax “Social Media Marketing.”

Social Media is simply the “content” of the social world. It consists of the connections and conversations that occur on Social Networking sites, as well as the content you see on blogs, video sites, and audio repositories like iTunes.

Like I said, it consists of Connections and Content:

Navigating the Social Media Marketing Landscape

When you work with me, I’ll evaluate the WHOLE picture.

This is important simply because everything is becoming more integrated every day.

We’ll develop and implement a strategy that simultaneously increases your exposure in the search engines (SEO) and makes you more visible to the social networking community.

And, because these two sides of Social Media Marketing are becoming increasingly overlapped, everything we do on one side will automatically help you in the other realm.

So, let’s get started today. The future of your business depends on how well you navigate the Social Media Landscape today.

Call 503-287-0246 or send me a note….