Understanding the Power of Social Media

From a blog: Late Tuesday evening, around 10:00 pm, I received a call on my business line from a local area code (my phone was forwarded to my cell phone as I was out of the office for meetings). The person was not already in my address book so all I got on my caller ID was the phone number. To answer or not to answer … that is the question. I always answer my phone if I am available. The gentleman on the other end is interested in franchising, actually, interested in starting a franchise concept from ground zero. It’s a great idea, I think, and he has a lot of the work started. After a brief conversation my question was, “How did you find me?” “Well,” he says. “First, I searched the word ‘franchise,’ found FranchiseWorks.com and I saw your profile. Then I decided to search your name, Jack Someone, in Google. From there, I found your blog and also your website. Your phone number is on your website.” Let’s suppose Jack is not a person but a product, and the caller is a customer. This puts into perspective the efficiency of social media as a marketing, advertising and PR tool. With social media you can target a specific segment of the audience. Let’s say your product is a mug with business messages written on them. So you want to look for 30 to 65 year-old, males/females, hot beverage drinkers, CEO/Manager/Purchaser of businesses who may be interested in your product. You go to blogs written by and read by your target audience and fine-tune the message to their interests and lifestyles and…voila! You save time, money and effort by targeting your product to the right audience.