I was doing some research for a marketing white paper and came across this interesting law called Metcalfe’s law in a list of 10 technology laws.
“3Com founder Bob Metcalfe’s Law originally described fax machines and computers, but it applies equally to the internet and to internet services such as Facebook: the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system. A social network with one user is completely useless; with a billion, it becomes almost essential.”
That’s an interesting comment on how important a social network and leveraging technology to communicate effectively has become in today’s marketing world.
Most People Are Using Social Media As A Communication Tool These Days
Since Facebook recently grew past 1 Billion worldwide users, it’s an easy way to see if the law applies.
Most people I know have Facebook accounts and (sometimes begrudgingly) use them to communicate. For a lot of the people I know, it’s become a pretty useful and easy way to stay connected and updated on the people that they know, like and trust. And for some people I know, it’s become a very important (read: lifeline) to the way that they see themselves and how they communicate with the outside world.
As a business owner and marketer, the pervasive nature of Facebook and other big social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Google+, presents both a requirement (and an opportunity) to stay in touch with the most important people in your database. The best thing about it is you can use technology and automation to make that marketing communication more consistent and effective.
Is Marketing Automation Really The Root Of All Evil?
Some people claim that automating your marketing through social networks is the root of all social networking evil. But I think they miss a very important point.
Salespeople who are actively pursuing their business to achieve high levels of success are simply time-starved. They just don’t have enough time to carve one to two hours a day out to research, write, plan and deliver high quality content through these channels. And they’re right.
But even though that’s the reality in the sales business, in order to drive the most repeat and referral business from your sphere of influence, you must be in front of them consistently. Without taking advantage of the automated systems available, you would just have to go on without having a social media presence.
Or you can use the best marketing automation tools available to you and be present in your social networks and still stay focused on the high-dollar activities as well.
Marketing automation is perfectly acceptable in just about every other form of business communication. And social media is no different.
The core take-away is this:
Your customers are using social media to communicate. It’s a lot easier staying in front of them to develop top of mind awareness in places that they already choose to consume information than attempting to get them to change their behavior and come to your website.
And the best way to do that is to share high quality, industry relevant, useful information on a consistent basis.
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