Steve Jobs recently reminded me how important it is to “think different” in your business model… in his biography I just finished reading. We hear the proverbial “think outside the box” phrase in nearly every company sales meeting, but why isn’t that phrase put into practice when it comes to social media? The purpose of this month’s issue is to provide a concrete strategy as well as some tactics you can implement immediately to begin leveraging the power and reach of social media in your business model.
First: Offer valuable content through a variety of social media channels to your three biggest champions – customers, employees 
and media outlets. They can deliver your message, your story, your “secret sauce” to a larger and more diverse audience than you can. Let’s talk “content.” The sky’s the limit. Be creative. For your customers it could include how-to videos, statistical data or other information that is useful to them. Ask them what they’d like to see your company provide on a regular basis via social media.
For your employees, do the same. Ask them what they’d like to see. It could be inspirational videos, a contest offering for the best [fill in the blank] or share an employee success story. And please, go beyond offering training videos and FAQs online. Make it entertaining. Make it humorous! Just be real. For example, interview them and ask them who’s the most influential person in their life and why, then post it (with their permission of course). Make your internal social media strategy all about them. They each have a story to tell and sharing those stories with other employees creates new friendships, a strong bond within the team and ultimately creates a loyalty to your organization because it shows have an interest in them.
And finally, make a strategic effort to reach out to your industry trade publications, local business journals or industry bloggers. Engage that audience and provide them interesting information about your company, your customers and your vision for the industry they cover. Give them anything their audience would find valuable, unique, different or compelling.
Second: Leverage social media to build your brand. What does that mean? Your company, your products, your service offering, your customers testimonials should be easy to find, online, project a positive image and be a resource for your audience to d
raw from. Use networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and SlideShare to share who you are, what your offer, how you’re different from others in the industry and why your company matters. This boils down to being active on these networks by posting, commenting, asking questions, polling and engaging your audience on a consistent basis. Dedicate an employee (or two) to write a weekly or monthly blog. Create a behind the scenes video and post it to YouTube and Facebook. Create a presentation and post it on Slideshare. Upload interesting pictures of your most recent trade show, company outing or product launch. Let people see what’s going on with your company, literally.
Third: Social Media can grow your business. How? LinkedIn is a great place to start. Use their advance search capabilities to prospect for new customers by title, industry and geographic location. Generate leads and referrals by exporting your LinkedIn contacts into an Excel spreadsheet and do a mail merge that will reach your entire circle of influence. Offer recommendations and ask for referrals. If everyone on your senior leadership team and/or other employees conducts this exercise, you might be surprised how quickly you find referral business. What about using these social networks to gather competitive intelligence? What is your competition doing online? Are they using social media and if so, what kind of response from their customers do you see? The information is out there. A little investigative research can go a long way. Acquiring “talent” and finding good people to join your organization are things every company is interested in doing. Twitter is a great tool for talent acquisition. In fact, if you’re looking for someone who can lead your social media efforts, Twitter is a great way to find that person(s). Generally speaking, they have a passion for social media, they are technology savvy and they are easy to find quickly.
At the end of the day, you’re simply using social media to do what you’re already doing offline and that is offering value, building your brand and 
growing your company. It will require some dedicated time, energy and effort and it’s not only worth doing, it’s worth doing really well. The pros far out way the cons, and in 24 or 36 months you’ll start reaping the rewards and wondering why you didn’t initiate this game plan earlier. If companies like Intel, IBM and Dell are finding such success with it, why can’t you? Successful blue prints are all around you. Don’t just mirror the those models, commit to a “think different” mentality and start investing in change today.
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