Social Media vs Social Business

Business is all about connecting with people that have a need you can fulfill, under terms they will agree with. Reaching out to them and delivering that fulfillment to their need has always been the challenge of Sales, Marketing and Support. Get it right and your business will grow. Get off track for any reason on delivering what the market needs now, and you expose yourself to risk. What makes this so difficult is that the landscape is constantly changing. With the forces of the economy, competition, raw good prices, you name it, the equation is one that takes a life to learn the formula to.

CRM is the tool you need to measure the inputs and outputs of the business and come up with a winning sytem, that can change on a dime. It is in this ability to create an organization that can innovate rapidly and repeatedly is the future of business.

So how does Social Media play into this equation? Well, like any other medium before it that facilitates an open dialogue with your customers (think the telephone, fax machines, Email, Web Forms, etc) Social Media is another way to get your message out to the marketplace and create a dialogue as to what the market needs on a daily basis. The problem with all media is that the marketplace gets immune to effects of the Marketing as a direct result of consuming the media itself – essentially it is like an explosion that consumes all the oxygen and puts the fire out – you need to continue to fuel the fire. Becoming a Social Business, or practicing Social Business is more than just providing Marketing, Sales, Support via Social Media, it is setting up the DNA of the business to be innovative on weekly basis, and only innovating on what the market is telling you they need.

Social Business says I want to partner with you today to continue to provide you what you need, indefinitely, as long as we can agree on the terms and I provide you a good quality product/service. Social Media sites will come and go, Social Business, no matter how the media, was and still is the only game in town for growing your business.