I get lots of questions about how I personally use social networks to market MediaSauce and myself.

And to tell you the truth, sometimes I think I know the answer to this question and sometimes I feel like I don’t.

Has any of my contacts through Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter generated business for MediaSauce.  Well, sort of.  But maybe it’s not the kind of direct correlation that advertising and marketing delivers.  Or that we think advertising and marketing deliver.

You see, you can’t argue with the facts.  Lots and lots of people are using these platforms.  The increase in usage is tremendous.

Facebook is up 700% in time spent and has over 200 million users – over 100 million unique visitors last month.

Linkedin is up 69% in time spent and has over 41 million users – over 12 million unique visitors last month.

And finally, Twitter, the marketing buzz word for the first six months of this year, is up a whooping 3700% increase in time spent and has over 32 million users – over 19 million unique visitors last month.  This is all from Nielsen, if you think I’m making it up.

I know it’s insane.  But what’s even bigger is the fact that more people are using the internet to communicate than entertain themselves.  In fact, according to Netpop, communication online has increased 18% to 27% of total time while entertainment has decreased 30% to 19% of total time online.

What’s that mean? We are more entertained with each other than Hollywood. These social networks are our reality shows (without so much drama – well, maybe not.)

We are social beings.  We love talking and hanging out. We like being part of crowds and causes.  We go out to see people.

Well, what does that have to do with my business?

Let me explain.

Word of Mouth Marketing has the strongest Return on Investment.  When someone you trust gives you a recommendation about a product, you are highly likely to purchase that product.  It’s what every business wants.

Take Apple for example. They made a great product. They have great advertising. But is that what sold the product to you? Probably not.  It was probably a friend that had one that told you how awesome it was.  The advertising exposed you to it but it didn’t sell it to you.  Your friend did.

Social Media and Networking is Word of Mouth online.  That’s it.  It’s that simple.

So if you can figure out how to get your customers to talk about you both offline (WOM) and online (Social Media), you don’t have to spend a lot of money on other pieces of your advertising and marketing budget.

But guess what? Trying to advertise on a social network doesn’t work.  People don’t like banners or contextual ads on their Linkedin and Facebook profiles.  They hate the fact that advertisers are trying to sneak into Twitter.

Why? Because you aren’t being a valuable part of their community.  You aren’t playing by the same rules as they are.  You are buying yourself into the party and shouting out your benefits. You, my friend, are a party-crasher – uninvited and you are stinking the place up.  But they can’t eject you (maybe on the new Digg Ads they will) but they can ignore you.

Just like they ignore you on TV (DVRs), radio (change stations), print (skip the page) and web (does anyone actually see a banner ad anymore?).

So if you want to be in these communities and you want people to notice who you are and what you stand for and are selling then you have to be the person they want to talk to.

You need to be smart, funny, friendly guy that people want to talk to, listen to, and, in general, they want you to notice them as well.  You can’t do that when all you are doing is talking about yourself.

So what do you have to do?  It’s simple – just be a friend.

Check out the powerpoint above, it will give you tips on each platform and walk you through the basics to get started.

By the way, none of these platforms are difficult.  They just take some time to understand and use.  In no time, you’ll be a pro.

If you want to measure the ROI from each one of these platforms, it’s pretty simple but that does take some time as well.

Just set up your CRM tool (Salesforce incorporated some social networking features) or your Excel sheet and measure the items I suggest in the powerpoint.  Like for ROI on Twitter, I suggest:

• Measure Your Time on Twitter

• Measure Your Connections (Target Audience Reach)

• Measure Your Conversations

• Measure Your Cost to Advertise on Twitter – there are a few out there now like BeTweeted.com and Magpie.com

This is just like you would do for a face-to-face meeting or cold calling.

Oh, and I want to make sure that I answer the question at the top.

Whenever I meet someone new, I hook up with them on Linkedin and I search them out on Twitter.

If we have more conversations, I reach out to them on Facebook.

I want them to be a part of my life and I want to be a part of theirs.  We’re friends, we’re business partners.  Lots of businesses say they want to be your partners but do they reach out to you in this personal way.  Probably not.  It’s much harder to ignore someone you have a relationship with.

Have I had success through these links? I sure have.

Through Linkedin, I have met a couple of new clients but the majority of my business has been from former co-workers reaching out and connecting.  We still have those connections going and they can easily find out what I’m up to.  And you better believe they reach out when they have business in what I do because I’m not the first line in the Yellow Pages.  We have a relationship already.  They trust me.

Through Facebook, I’ve met friends of friends and while the connection is social at first, it has quickly leads to business.  In fact, I usually earn business from friends by the way I use Facebook to promote our business and they want to learn how as well.

Through Twitter, I’ve reached out to people I did not know.  But not like a cold call – I reached out by joining in their conversations.  But I’ve also had several reach out to me wanting to learn how they can be a part of MediaSauce and our culture.

Listen, these platforms will probably not be around forever with the way the web is evolving but these virtual connections I’m making will move along with me.  People I’m tied with today will probably remain with me in five years though it might not be through Facebook or whatever.

You don’t have to be my BFF to be connected online.  But if you want to learn more about me, then connect below.  You can be guaranteed that I want to know more about you.  I’m a social being after all.

What do you think?  Think I’m crazy?

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