Why does internet marketing take so long?

Why does internet marketing take so long?  After all, once you've created a website and sorted out the search engine optimisation, surely there's nothing much left to do is there? Wrong!!

Because my internet marketing presence is to “engage the client through an increasingly digital purchase journey”, it's important to have an online presence which informs, educates, excites and establishes trust in the services I offer.

And the longer I thought about my objectives to using social media services including Twitter, Google AdWords, Facebook, this blog, website, slideshare, delicious, eBay shop and PayPal, the more it reminded me of some early sales advice I received over twenty years ago when I was first starting out:

• When meeting a new client:  First - Sell Yourself
• Second - Sell your organisation or company
• Third -  and only when you've achieved the above, Sell your product or service.

 And when I applied these principles to my use of  social media services it all added up!

This revealed to me why it just takes so long to manage an effective internet presence - it's a lot of work!!

moving my business communications into the 2.0 world

I’ve been reading lots of online blogs recently from the great and the good commentators in how to best use the social web for business benefit.

And as a result I’m going to be changing how I manage my communications: I’ve always paid close attention to how I communicate with business colleagues & clients and pride myself on the quality of personal service I provide, but it appears a good email and phone manner aren’t enough any more!

And actually, the reasons are fairly obvious: Given the amount of content & opinion available on blogs, wikis, google, yahoo, twitter, linkedin, facebook, youtube & tripadvisor (phew! to name a few) we have all changed how we want to be communicated with and how we make decisions...

So I’ve been asking myself “what does this means to my style of business communications”? Here are a few thought provoking quotes I’ve jotted down:

• “ Don’t Broadcast: Engage, Encourage, Excite”
• “ Add value: Involvement > Interaction > Intimacy > Influence”
• “What can we share about ourselves that will make our clients more informed / interested?”
• “How can we be the people to help out?”
• “Start listening and stop shouting…”
• “Provide expertise to help solve problems”
• “Engage your customers appropriately online”
• “Engage the consumer through an increasingly digital purchase journey”
• “Harness brand interest by syndicating content that empowers the consumer”
• “Online purchasers increasingly want marketers to help them make smart decisions. They don’t want to be subjected to the hard sell – they expect marketers to engage them, not dictate to them”
• “Marketers are required to manage a staggering amount of content to support products, segments, channels & promotions”…

So as a consequence I’ve signed up to a few of the most popular services around to develop new skills & knowledge.

Please join me, link to me, follow me, add me as a favourite or give me the thumbs up as I embrace the social web.

Thank You.

DOs and DON'T of Social Media

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