1. Product & service improvement

2. Company reputation improvement

3. Sales people cost nothing (for now) Social Media helps identify new sales people for FREE!!!! These brand influencers and brand ambassadors will help strengthen your brand by telling real life stories of how your products and services have helped them professionally or personally and this is critical for sustained growth over the next 5 years- this I can guarantee. Reach out to them before they go to you competitors.

4. Old Sales Tactics are replaced by Social Selling – We now tell our friends/ colleagues/ partners whom we are connected with online about our experiences (good and bad) and depending on your “social influence” this affects the buying decisions of products & services of your firm.

5. Transparency, Truth, and Timing Are now embedded in model companies and aren’t just terms companies throw around anymore, but actually reflect on their culture. (i.e. Zappos, whole foods, Gary-Vee (Wine Library TV) etc. Either you are in or out, no 1 foot in half @#$ stuff! And if you try to be in when your out, you will be labeled as OUT!

6. Everyone has a voice– Media outlets fear the truth because everyone has a voice now, & this is growing exponentially.  Is about giving the power back to the people or consumers who have been advertised and marketed to all the time and have pushed them to the limit.  People and consumers want to be engaged or recommended a solution or product from their peers now NOT advertised to.

7. Competitive Advantage, First Mover, and Business Strategy All tie into Social Media Marketing (If you don’t know what these terms mean look them up or go to business school)

8. Change is no longer talked about, its now about ACTION-great leaders will surface in organizations who are embracing this opportunity to get ahead and develop their circle of influence to promote this change, plan, execute, train, and track (ask us for details on these services- we have a proven system)

9. Google pay per click declines, email marketing declines, and Social Media takes over (I now check twitter more than my email- much quicker for me to say less but still have more of an impact than writing a huge email) Plus- this forces creativity and improved communication (learning to communicate with “less” is the new “more”.)

10. Communication is still the key– Social Media is just a new form of communication that businesses are now accepting as part of their marketing mix. Companies wanting to get involved with social media, be prepared, you will need a budget. When you get one, talk to me or one of our team members.

Anything you’d like to add? Agree/ Disagree?  Would you mind leaving your insight on this post below? I’m interested in hearing from you.

Please re-tweet this post, share, and let other business professionals know about this top ten list. This is extremely useful for the business community in which we are educating, training, and consulting on the business application of Social Media. We have been for almost 1 year now. Thank you

Justin R French

CEO Social Networking San Diego

GaryVee, Me, and Robert @ Syrah in San Diego- book signing of CrushIt (Still finishing up)

Buy it here discounted:

In case you haven’t noticed, Entrepreneurship is on the rise. Especially what I call “Social Entrepreneurship”. Why? I will give you 3 simple reasons:

1. No such thing as job security anymore
2. Average employee tenure at a firm is only 2 years and a few months
3. People are tired of doing things they are not passionate about, and are seeing new opportunities and accepting more risk to do something they love and follow their passion (especially Generation Y)

What are your thoughts about the current trend in Entrepreneurship & Entrepreneurship being taught in business school? Agree or disagree? IBM embraces entrepreneurial minded people and formulates mini entrepreneurial teams to innovate, collaborate, and demonstrate products/ projects that create change and improvement over existing technologies. If there is one model company to follow its IBM. I have studied them for years, and they truly are an industry leader and we aspire to run our start-up the same way. For more on Entrepreneurship, please visit my blog “An Entrepreneurs Journey” here: The Journey Of An Entrepreneur Any comments? Do you agree/ disagree with my opinions? Let me know,

Thanks
Justin CEO Social Networking San Diego

Free? There is nothing FREE in this world as we know BUT if you don’t mind rolling up your sleeves, taking some notes, and working long hours then this may be the right opportunity for you to earn a FREE PhD using these FREE online tools and all your investing is your time. Not a penny more (except if you want to pay for some premium subscription services on some of these tools that help you listen better and teach you how to build systems) Times may be tough, but as business leaders and business professionals, we need to stay on top of education because at the end of the day, customers pay for our knowledge, experience and education and as consultants, we must stay up-to-date and constantly be learning.

I hear so often, “I don’t have time to do Twitter Justin, I have to run my business. Or I love this one,” My customers aren’t on twitter or social networking sites so we don’t need to get involved with that stuff.” Well ok, so I won’t sell you on the power of Twitter for your business anymore, or how building relationships in a virtual setting is just like networking at the local chamber. What I will try to sell you on is the importance of educating yourself on a new world- The Online world and how business has changed. If you don’t see that by now, I hope your still in business next year when we launch some new products that may help you stay ahead of your competitors online.

I can confidently say that with all the knowledge I have gained over the last 10 years of being an Entrepreneur and getting a degree while running small businesses, id like to give you a taste for the online education I received. This isn’t spending thousands of dollars with University of Phoenix or FullSail (Though Mira Costa College and the business program at Cal State San Marcos were hidden Jewels) for education, its just knowing where to look for the thought leaders, technology, listening, strategic thinking, and studying case studies.

Here are some of the listening tools I used to receive my PHD in online marketing for business over the last 4 years:

You Tube– I have watched hundreds of business videos on leadership, sales, marketing, CEO keynote speeches, Webinars, How To videos, technology conferences, start-up companies, etc. The point is YouTube can be used for educational purposes as well as entertainment, and there is plenty of great content out there which saves on gas and hotel expenses. Don’t forget savings from those pricey course fees. I can honestly say that a good portion of my learning relevant information to my industry (Business & High Tech) has been done using video and Google.

Small Business Trends– I have been subscribed to this site for longer than I can remember. Anita and her team have given me extremely valuable information in my journey as a small business owner over the years, and I continue to read the articles from this wealth of information. (Big thank you to Anita) Here is the link to this site (Click Here): Small Business Trends

Google Reader– I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used Google to find relevant information on a topic I was researching (I love to research, as we know, Leaders are Readers right?) Read a headline from one of my blog subscriptions, and was informed. As we know, knowledge is power and there is no better free tool than Google Reader (Google Alerts too)

Linked-In– At first I was skeptical about Linked-in (just like everything about on-line) but then I started engaging in the group discussions and realized how much valuable information you can receive from extremely successful people who have been in the trenches and have years of experience. I then would add my insights and the sharing of business experiences can help shape better decision making. 10 minds discussing an issue on business are better than 1 right? Linked-In was where I was introduced to the “Thought Leader” term online. If you have a passion about a particular area of business (find that group on linked-in), you want to demonstrate your expertise in your particular industry by sharing your insights and be the first to put out relevant information (first mover advantage) on a topic. Here is my Linked-in if you’d like to connect with me (but do me a favor when connecting, can you please mention what made you want to connect and how you see it being a mutually beneficial connection. This would help me out a great deal.

More topics to come tomorrow, I have been consulting for clients around the clock and am beat…..

What types of sites do you use to keep informed? What are some of your favorites? I’m interested in hearing your feedback- talk soon

Justin

P.S. We are launching a social media for business product soon so be on the look out