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.

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Listen, these technologies are just tools.  Just like your fax machine (if you still have one of those) or your email.

It’s a tool for communication with other people.  When email came out (does anyone remember life without email?), some people embraced it.  But others, you know, struggled, they fought it, but then they finally had to give in.  And, of course, there were those that got confused and accidentally spammed the entire company.  That still happens.  But it doesn’t happen so much anymore.  And what companies do actual training on how to use email?  It’s just a part of life in the office environment and you should know how to use email.

Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter can all be the same thing – even if it isn’t called by these specific brand names in a few years.  Think companies won’t have an internal Facebook for communicating.  Think a Linkedin type tool won’t hold all your business and personal information.  What we are seeing is just the first shots at these tools.  Email has come a long way in a short time.  Don’t think that these tools won’t evolve as well. more

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Facebook vs Linkedin vs Twitter

Maybe you think that your target audience isn’t online. You’ve talked to a few of your colleagues and they all think the same thing. Well, maybe they aren’t. But I wouldn’t use my gut to consider if I should be doing more online.

For instance, I have a client that did a series of their target audience (engineers) and their distributors. There was some very insight findings. Their engineers used Google more than anything else to find new products whereas the distributors used Trade Magazines. And the predominant niche search, Global Spec, wasn’t used very often at all by either audience.

So where should be focus our marketing dollars. Trade magazines or Google? The client made the decision to pursue the target audience, engineers, via Google and communicate directly with his distributors dropping trade mags altogether (mainly due to expense).

Now, let’s take a glance at the rest of the world which could be your target audience.

Using Compete.com, Facebook has 91 million unique visitors, a 23% increase over last month, and a 195% over last year. Is your audience going there? BTW, ads aren’t the best way to reach people on Facebook. Being part of the conversation and allowing them to control it is a much better way to engage.
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Connections are taking on a whole new meaning in the Interconnected Age – and sales executives that believe they can rely solely on the relationship building methods of days gone by are going to quickly become relics.

If you want your sales organization to help you gain market share in the digital age, they must be ready and able to connect; social media is quickly driving new opportunities to generate business.

At “Sales 2.0,” Bryan Gray and I layed out the critical need for sales organizations to outwit and outmanuever the competition – or risk being beat by smarter, more digitally savvy sales teams. (Watch the presentation below)

You can listen to the entire presentation here.

Build a culture

Unfortunately there isn’t a magic pill that can turn our traditional sales force into a weapon for the digital age.  So those of us in sales leadership must start today to build a culture prepared to  compete as more and more customers choose to make decisions through the internet and not by RFPs, long sales proposals, etc.

We can, however, begin building a culture by getting our existing staff introduced to social media and give them the insight to start generating new business. Let’s face it, there’s no easier way to get sales people excited about new tools or technology than to show them the immediate impact these tools can make on their commission checks!

3 tools, all free

There are a multitude of fantastic Web 2.0 tools out there to generate leads from, but it’s important we get started with the ones that have the most immediate opportunity for impact. I guarrantee that if your entire sales force exploited the opportunities that these three free sites offer, they’ll make more sales and have deeper relationships with their prospects and customers:

• Facebook
• LinkedIN
• Twitter

Notice I said “exploit” not “use.” There is a significant difference. Just having a profile on these three sites isn’t enough. Adding a couple photos and occasionally sending out a connection or friend request is merely participation on the site.

In the coming days and weeks I will write a few blog posts on the MediaSauce blog about each of these tools. In the meantime, take a look at the presentation Bryan and I gave at “Sales 2.0″ for a quick look at the opportunities that these three tools create for you as you transform your sales organization for the digital age.

Today is the day to make a change in your sales culture. If you don’t, your competition will find a way to sell to your customers while you’re still trying to get a phone call returned for an appointment.

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There are numerous digital and social media tools that are driving connections in the Interconnected Age, but none will play a more important role for successful business development professionals than LinkedIN.

Why? Because LinkedIN gives you the power to uncover relationships outside of your immediate social and professional circle, with minimal effort. These relationships and degrees of separation allow you to quickly move into new business opportunities without the old fashioned method of cold calling.

An Example of Using LinkedIN To Generate An Opportunity

Let’s say I’ve identified a way MediaSauce could collaborate with ChaCha, a leading mobile search company. I know that my idea to collaborate is big-picture and I want to talk with Scott Jones, the CEO and founder.

Without LinkedIN, I would have had to cold-call or email ChaCha to try and get a bit of Scott’s time. I may not know anyone who works there, so I have no “insider” edge. When I do finally make that effort, I’ll most likely be referred by his assistant to someone further down the chain.

But I want to go straight to the TOP of the organization. I want 15 minutes of Scott’s undivided attention to present my phenomenal idea. So, how do I get it? Enter the power of LinkedIN to open doors.

By searching for Scott’s Profile on LinkedIN, I can look at his profile and discover that we have a common colleague: Jason Zielke. Jason and I know each other on a semi-personal basis through a mutual friend. Quick research shows me that unknownst to me, Jason works for Scott, leading his company Precise Path Robotics.

I now have someone who I can ask to help me open doors. Of course, the strength of my connection with Jason will likely drive his choice to get me that face-time I desire (or not). It’s quality of the network that makes it powerful, not just the size.

What if my  prospect isn’t on LinkedIN?

Let’s assume that Scott didn’t have a profile on LinkedIN…how could I connect to him if he’s not on there? Simple, because I that I might have connections to someone at ChaCha who works with him.

Rather than searching for Scott Jones, I’ll search for “ChaCha” to see who works there that I know.  My results display that there are 402 profiles with “ChaCha” mentioned in them.

The top of the list returns Courtney Adams. Of course, someone who’d I’d met a Web 2.0 event in the past! Now I can try to leverage my connection with her (even thought it is weak, it’s still more valuable than cold-calling) to request a meeting with Scott from the inside. Thank goodness I had taken a couple minutes the night after the event a few months ago to send invitations to link to me with all the great new people I had met.

Thus the importance to recognize that all of your connections, big and small, really play a bigger role in your future. And in Interconnected Age, those connections are your most valuable assets.

What should you do to take advantage of LinkedIN?

From that perspective, making sure that as many of your personal and professional circle is actively linking to each other on LinkedIN is critical. The more people you and I can encourage to use LinkedIN, the better our extended network will be.

On December 31st, I hit my goal of linking to 500 connections. Having 500 professional and personal colleagues then puts me within 3 degrees of separation to more than 4,000,000 professionals! See below:

While I doubt that all 4,168,400+ connections I am now linked to through the network are prospects for my services, I know there are some hidden gems I’ll tap into in the near future.

By the way, if you haven’t already created a profile to LinkedIN…do it now! And then, make a religion of requesting the new people you meet are added as friends the same day you meet them. I end every day sending invitations to connect to the new contacts I meet. It’s easy and it can become a foundation for my digital relationship with them for years to come.

Remember: You never know when an otherwise common introduction may turn into a future deal. Use LinkedIN to capitalize on it!

If you’re interested in learning more about how to use digital and social media to be more effective in your sales initiatives, attend MediaSauce’s upcoming event “Sales 2.0: Is your Sales Force Prepared For the Digital Age.”

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Traditional lead generation and sales processes are rapidly evolving with new technologies. Is your sales force prepared to outmaneuver your competition? You cannot afford to be outwitted or outplayed by competitors who are using these new tools to generate leads and steal market share.

(Editors note: See a summary of this presentation on the MediaSauce blog by James Burnes)

It is time to act. It is time to empower your sales force for the digital age.

Join MediaSauce for a fast-paced seminar to learn how to transform your sales force and empower them to succeed using digital and social media. (Buy tickets now) more

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Here’s my two cents about Inc. Mag. And don’t get me wrong – I love the mag – but they are always a bit behind the times when it comes to new media and technology. I really miss Business 2.0 – I can’t believe they shut it down and replaced my 2.0 with Fortune – what a waste.

So with the article, “Tapping The Community Pool” in the latest issue, they basically talk about how Social Communities via forums or wikis or blogs are allowing customers to help answer each other questions about products. Wow, that’s so 2003.

The example they give is a pool company (www.poolcenter.com) that has a large forum with 5000 registered users. They have their techs online to answer any questions about their products but a lot of times other customers answer the question before an online tech can get to it.

I don’t know if any of you have a Treo, but Palm’s entire support is based in community forums and a lot of times you can’t even get a tech to answer you. They just redirect you to another customer’s post on how to solve a problem.

I’m a huge fan of Ning and they have two communities for support – both creators and developers. Both of these are filled with workarounds and tips from other customers.

I’ve always pushed for community development around any company’s service or product. Now I almost always get somebody who will tell me they don’t need a full blown social community – that there is too many already. The funny thing is that this is usually from someone that doesn’t use any social communities. There’s a cartoon out there floating around (I should have saved the link) showing a guy signing up for a social community network. Afterwards he says, “That’s it. I officially have more social networks than friends.”

That’s probably the case for me.

I’ve got Facebook, my church, my wellness doctor, my family, my company, my marketing network, linkedin, twitter, and this damn blog.

Maybe you think that is too many…but I don’t think so. I think we go in and out of social communities all day long – the net just made them virtual and gave them names.

A little future gazing here – but I believe that our social identities will become more and more important on the web to the fact that websites will change when we visit them depending on the profile we are using to visit them. I’m also into siteless web presence for companies (you don’t need a website as much as you need a presence on many, many websites) as well but I’ll talk about that in a different blog.

Wow, I’ve really gotten far away from my topic. What I wanted to say about the article is that they don’t mention how much Google loves forums, blogs and wikis. There’s a whole host of reasons that I’ll explain in the future but Google digs the relevant content, the new content, the old content, all the keywords and a whole host of other things associated with these communities and there’s a good chance your community will pop up before your website.

And if Google can see you, then the world can. They don’t even mention that in the article.

To prove my point, search for me on Google. Don Schindler. A while back this guy with my exact same name used to dominate Google because he was a Scientologist and he wrote a few articles. But not anymore.

So this blog is a little longer than I wanted.

Remember this though, maybe you don’t think a community is right for you now. Well, all I have to say is, imagine how hard it will be to start one five years from now. The web is in its infancy and you could build an established base right now.

And if you need help, MediaSauce (who I work for) can help you out. You don’t have to go this alone and you’d be surprised how inexpensive it is to set this stuff up.

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